The number of Americans not in the workforce dipped last month but remained above 94.5 million, according to numbers released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS reports that 94,517,000 Americans were neither employed nor made an effort to find employment — due to discouragement, retirement, schooling or otherwise — during the month of June.
The 94,517,000 Americans out of the workforce last month represented a decline from the record high 94,708,000 people out of the workforce in May.
The labor force participation rate — which, in recent years has hovered around the low levels not seen since the 1970s — also increased slightly, hitting 62.7 percent in June, up from May’s 62.6 percent. June’s participation rate was also slightly higher than it was exactly a year ago.
The civilian labor force also grew by 414,000 people in June, hitting 158,880,000. Of those participating in the labor force, 151,097 Americans had a job and 7,783,000 were unemployed.
Overall the economy added 287,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in June and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.9 percent, from 4.7 percent in May.
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