The number of Americans not participating in the work force hit another record high in May, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS reports that last month 94,708,000 Americans were neither employed nor made an effort to find employment — due to discouragement, retirement, education, or otherwise — last month.
May’s non-participation numbers represent a 664,000 increase compared to the month prior and smash the previous record of 94,610,000 set last September.
Along with the skyrocketing number of Americans out of the work force, the labor force participation rate dipped from 62.8 percent in April to 62.6 percent in May. As the BLS highlighted, the participation rate has declined by 0.4 percentage points over the past two months.
The civilian labor force also declined by 458,000 people last month, hitting 158,466,000.
Meanwhile, 151,030,000 Americans had a job last month and 7,436,000 were unemployed, down 484,000 compared to April. Nonfarm payroll employment however, only increased by 38,000 jobs.
Additionally the unemployment rate dropped 0.3 percent from 5.0 percent in April to 4.7 percent in May.