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1.5 million people marginally attached to the labor force in April 2017

May 10, 2017

In April 2017, 1.5 million people were marginally attached to the labor force, down by 181,000 from April 2016. These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

People marginally attached to the labor force, not seasonally adjusted, April 2007 to April 2017
Month Marginally attached Discouraged workers Other people marginally attached to the labor force

Apr 2007

1,391,000 399,000 992,000

Apr 2008

1,414,000 412,000 1,002,000

Apr 2009

2,089,000 740,000 1,350,000

Apr 2010

2,432,000 1,197,000 1,234,000

Apr 2011

2,466,000 989,000 1,477,000

Apr 2012

2,363,000 968,000 1,395,000

Apr 2013

2,347,000 835,000 1,512,000

Apr 2014

2,160,000 783,000 1,378,000

Apr 2015

2,115,000 756,000 1,360,000

Apr 2016

1,715,000 568,000 1,146,000

Apr 2017

1,534,000 455,000 1,080,000

Among the marginally attached in April 2017, 455,000 were discouraged workers, a decrease of 113,000 from April 2016. Discouraged workers are people not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. Other persons marginally attached to the labor forces describes people who had not searched for work in 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — April 2017" (HTML) (PDF). More charts featuring Current Population Survey data are presented in Charts related to the latest "The Employment Situation" news release.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, 1.5 million people marginally attached to the labor force in April 2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/1-point-5-million-people-marginally-attached-to-the-labor-force-in-april-2017.htm (visited October 10, 2024).

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