There Are Now 8.6 Million Missing American Workers

Everyone knows how unemployment surged through the roof. In a span of two weeks, 10 million people claimed filed for unemployment benefits. The scale is unimaginable. Look at the chart.

But what is less publicized is that the Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) dropped by 0.70% in one month, from 63.4% in February 2020 to just 62.7% in March 2020. So, over 1.6 million people dropped off from the labor force and have gone missing.

There are now 8.6 million people missing from the labor force since the Great Recession began in December 2007 because the LFPR dropped from 66.0% pre-recession to a current 62.7% today.

We are now back to August 2018 levels. This figure reflects only the 3.0 million people that became unemployed in the last week of March 2020. In the first week of April 2020, 6.6 million more people became unemployed, which will lead to further and bigger drops in the Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate for April.