More than 27 million people stopped working between March and April, but over a third of them are not included in the official unemployment rate of 14.7 percent. Millions have been pushed into part-time hours, or want a job but aren’t currently looking for one. 9.5 million Americans who worked in March exited the labor force in May, according to this month’s job report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects information about people who are not in the labor force but want a job. If you added these Americans to the official unemployment rate, you’d get a new rate as high as 19.8 percent.

Source: Washington Post May 08, 2020 19:41 UTC