| HEALTH PROBLEMS, UNDER EDUCATION, AGING POPULATION, FEWER JOBS ADD TO STATS
Report: Thousands of West Virginians cannot work or not seeking work
By Andrew Brown, Business Reporter for the Gazette-Mail
West Virginia has the highest rate of unemployment in the country, with more than 7 percent of the state's workforce left without a job.
But a new report released by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy Monday says the state's labor problems go much deeper than the roughly 57,000 job seekers who are currently out of work.
Below the dismal employment numbers, West Virginia also has the worst workforce participation rate in the country, meaning the state has the lowest percentage of the adult population actually attempting to find work.
Nationally, federal data shows that more than 62 percent of people 16 years of age or older are employed or looking for work, but in West Virginia, only 53 percent of that age group want to, or are capable of, holding a job.
That labor participation rate removes roughly 687,000 adult West Virginians from the active workforce and places West Virginia in a group of nine other states that have a workforce participation rate below 60 percent. Even then, the second-worst state, Mississippi, trails West Virginia by more than a percentage point.
While the last place ranking isn't new â the state has had the worst labor force participation rate since 1976 â the report highlights some of the reasons why so few West Virginians seek work and suggests some policies that might help to alleviate the problem....
READ REST OF STORY Report: Thousands of West Virginians cannot work or not seeking work By Andrew Brown, Business Reporter for the Gazette-Mail
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