Real Economy: Job growth good, job participation bad

CNN - Last year was America's best year of job growth since 1999. More than 2.9 million jobs were created last year, according to the latest figures from the Department of Labor. The unemployment rate fell to 5.6% in December, down from 5.8% in November. That's also a big drop from the 6.7% rate in December 2013.

Breibart -  A record 92,898,000 Americans 16 years and older did not participate in the labor force last month, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS defines people not in the work force as people 16 years and up who are not employed and haven’t “made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week.” The labor force participation rate — or the “The labor force as a percent of the civilian noninstitutional population” — also dipped back down to 62.7 percent, from 62.9 percent in November. September also saw a labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent, however prior to then, the last time the rate hit 62.7 percent was in February of 1978.

CBNC-  Job quality did not fare well...  with wages actually declining for the month by 5 cents an hour, pulling the annualized gain down to 1.7 percent. The average work week held steady at 34.6 hours.

Adam S. Hersh ‏- Labor force participation for less than HS 45.4%; higher education 74.6%... Unemployment rate at 16.8% for teens, 10.8% for 20-24 year olds