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1.5 million people marginally attached to the labor force in July 2019, unchanged over the year

August 07, 2019

In July 2019, there were 1.5 million people who were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. These are people who were not in the labor force, although they wanted work and were available for it and had looked for jobs at some point in the previous 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not actively searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

People marginally attached to the labor force, not seasonally adjusted, July 2009 to July 2019

Month

Marginally attached

Discouraged workers

Other marginally attached

July 2009

2,282,000 796,000 1,486,000

July 2010

2,622,000 1,185,000 1,437,000

July 2011

2,785,000 1,119,000 1,666,000

July 2012

2,529,000 852,000 1,677,000

July 2013

2,414,000 988,000 1,426,000

July 2014

2,178,000 741,000 1,437,000

July 2015

1,927,000 668,000 1,259,000

July 2016

1,950,000 591,000 1,359,000

July 2017

1,629,000 536,000 1,093,000

July 2018

1,498,000 512,000 986,000

July 2019

1,478,000 368,000 1,110,000

Among the marginally attached, there were 368,000 discouraged workers in July 2019, down by 144,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are people not currently looking for work because they believe that there are no jobs available for them. The remaining 1.1 million people who were marginally attached to the labor force in July had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

These data are from the Current Population Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. For more information, see “The Employment Situation — July 2019.” 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 July 2019, unchanged over the year at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/1-point-5-million-people-marginally-attached-to-the-labor-force-in-july-2019-unchanged-over-the-year.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

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