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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. labor force is shrinking, as more Americans are giving up hope.
Last month, only 58.1% of Americans age 16 and over were employed, a significant drop from before the recession and the lowest since 1983.
That's especially worrisome to economists, who say a steady increase in those dropping out of the work force and not being counted in the unemployment
rate is disguising just how bad the labor market really is."People are dropping out of labor force for all types of reasons," said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics.
"And it's not a good trend. A good part of the wealth of a nation has to do with the proportion of population that works."
Some economists say that the employment-population ratio, or "e-pop," is a more accurate snapshot of the labor market than the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.1% last month from 10.1% in October 2009.
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