A Continuously Tough Labor Market Frustrating Job Seekers. Some Have Given Up Looking

Record numbers of people have stopped looking for jobs and dropped out of the labor market entirely.

CNBC reported that June saw the largest one-month drop in labor participation for people 25 to 54 since June 1976. The figures exclude the COVID-19 pandemic. The network reported that according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, about 720,000 people stopped looking for work between May and June.

Overall, the labor participation rate fell in June to 61.5 percent, the lowest the figure has been since March 1977, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic era, the St. Louis Fed reported.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the labor force participation rate as the number of people who are either working or seeking work as a share of the working age population. Anyone 16 and over is considered part of that population, with prime working ages considered 25 to 54.

Not only has the labor participation rate been declining, but it has also been declining among people who should be in their working prime.

According to CNBC, announced layoffs in January were the highest they had been since 2009, during the Great Recession. Job seekers have been forced to contend with a flooded job market.

"Other than the death of a family member or a close friend, [unemployment] is one of the most devastating things that people face," Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, told CNBC in June.

According to Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, men and women are both leaving the workforce, with the majority of those doing so being aged 25 to 34.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that the unemployment rate of 4.2 percent and the number of unemployed people, 7.1 million, changed little in June. However, the labor participation rate declined, and the number of people considered "long-term" unemployed remained elevated compared to a year ago.

"The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.9 million in June but is up by 286,000 over the year. The long-term unemployed accounted for 27.3 percent of all unemployed people in June," the BLS stated.