what is a discouraged worker 
a discouraged worker is a person who is eligible for employment and can work but who is currently unemployed and has not attempted to find employment in the last four weeks discouraged workers usually have given up on searching for a job because they found no suitable employment options or failed to secure a job when they applied understanding discouraged workersthe u s department of labor s bureau of labor statistics bls defines discouraged workers as those persons not in the labor force who want and are available for work and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey the bls adds that discouraged workers were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them or there were none for which they would qualify 2as discouraged workers are no longer looking for employment they are not counted as active in the labor force this means that the headline unemployment rate which is based solely on the active labor force number does not take into account the number of discouraged workers in the country 34the causes for worker discouragement are complex and varied in some cases workers fall out of the workforce because they are not equipped to deal with technological change in their workplace an example of this occurred during the great recession when the manufacturing sector shed senior staff unable to work on the new computer numeric control cnc machines used for cutting wood and other hard materials according to a report by the washington post 5nick eberstadt of the american enterprise institute aei has blamed the flight from work on a lack of supply of skilled able and willing workers and an increasing reliance on disability insurance 6 his theory is backed by alan krueger s 2016 research which found that self reported pain and disability insurance was higher among discouraged workers 7other possible reasons for discouraged workers include restrictions that limit employment options for formerly incarcerated individuals and jobs that are perceived as being inaccessible to a specific gender 89the number of discouraged workers in the u s in june 2024 according to the bureau of labor statistics bls 10bls accounting for discouraged workersto better analyze unemployment in the u s the bls created alternative measures for the underutilization of labor u 4 u 5 and u 6 capture discouraged workers 1from the second quarter of 2023 through the first quarter of 2024 the u 4 rate seasonally adjusted was 3 9 just a shade higher than the headline or official unemployment rate of 3 7 11in spite of the pandemic s impact on the economy the current u 4 number is not as bad as the 2009 annual average which stood at 9 7 in the throes of the great recession 12helping the discouragedthe u 4 rate helps to quantify how many discouraged workers exist and keep tabs on the change in their numbers further analysis of age groups race and geographic location is also made possible by u 4 measures policymakers at federal state and local levels can use these numbers to formulate plans to assist them such plans may consist of training programs education subsidies or tax credits for companies that hire long term unemployed individuals 