An influx of workers into the labor market contributed to an uptick in the country’s recently sluggish labor force participation rate, which measures the number of people in the labor market as a percentage of the total civilian non-institutional population (or working-age individuals who are not on active military duty or in mental health facilities or jails).
The labor force participation rate in May sat at 62.9 percent, up slightly from April’s 62.8 percent. That rate hasn’t moved much since hitting 62.7 percent in September, its lowest reading since February 1978.
[snip]
There were almost 7.2 million individuals classified as unemployed in November 2007 (compared to the nearly 8.7 million unemployed individuals in the labor force last month). And only 79 million Americans were considered not to be participants in the labor force (compared to the nearly 93 million classified as such today). [Emphasis added.]
