The Lone Star State Bucks National Trend: Texas' Labor Force Actually Growing.

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 976 -- The Labor Force In Texas Keeps Growing-

The Texas Workforce Commission today released its December 2013 Employment Statistics report, wrapping up the year and providing more evidence that Texas is truly a lone star outlier in an economically sick nation.

One thing that stood out to me was the disparity in labor force growth (or lack thereof) between Texas and the rest of the United States:

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While the national unemployment rate has fallen substantially over the past couple of years, that rate drop has been more about a shrinking numerator than an adequately growing denominator.

Why am I throwing 3rd grade math at you, talking about numerators and denominators? Because the unemployment rate is a fairly simple calculation. You take the number of unemployed individuals and divide by the number of individuals in the labor force. Yes, it's more complex that that, but not really.

Nationally, job growth has not been robust enough to actually drive down the unemployment rate to where it is today \, but people have been dropping out of the labor force in droves, so the math adds up on a technicality. The purported national unemployment rate is 6.7%. If not for the decline in labor force participation, it could be upwards of 7.7%. Moreover, excess Baby Boomer retirees are not the problem, as many have claimed.

In Texas, where the unemployment rate is already lower than the national rate, job growth has been robust, but so has labor force growth.

Ultimately, the implications of a growing versus shrinking labor force are myriad. The actuarial solvency of entitlements relies on a growing workforce. If we want to sustain America's superpower status well into the 21st century and beyond, our nation's labor force will need to stop the bleeding and look a lot more like the Lone Star State's growing, youthful, energetic labor force.

Note: the Texas Workforce Commission numbers cited here are not seasonally-adjusted.

via:http://www.willisms.com/archives/2014/01/the_lone_star_s.html