While the expanding U.S. population, supplemented by 1.7 million annual certified immigrants, plus an uncountable number still slipping in, overall unemployment continues its upward climb.
Although the U.S. Department of Labor’s official January 2015 5.6% unemployment rate would tend to indicate the best labor force addition since before the Great Recession, peaking in March 2009, U.S. economic growth cannot absorb the total U.S. employment increase. The labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of employees holding jobs (including full-time and part-time workers), is closing in on the low of 60% of available employees.