Who Is Out of the Labor Force?

This Brookings Institution report provides an in-depth analysis of 24 million working-age adults who were not in the labor force in 2016. The researchers examined the reasons why these adults were not working, who they were living with, and how they were making ends meet. Women without a high school diploma were the largest group of Americans who were not in the labor force, and both men and women cited illness, disability, being a student, or retiring early as the reasons why they were not working. Nearly 75% of adults who were not participating in the workforce lived in a household with earned income, and the most common living arrangements were living with a spouse or a parent.