By Charles Young, The Exponent Telegram
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Low labor force participation — the percentage of the population working or currently looking for work — is one of West Virginia’s long-standing economic impediments.
Mississippi is the only state in the nation with lower labor force participation than West Virginia, Dr. John Deskins, director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, said Tuesday.
“It’s better than last,” he said to attendees of the North Central West Virginia Business Summit. “This is our problem in West Virginia. Our problem isn’t unemployment.”
The unemployment rate only shows, among those who want to work, how many people have a job versus how many people are looking for work.
The labor force participation rate, on the other hand, is a more accurate gauge of whether an economy is actually healthy, Deskins said.
“This figure captures what is the share of the adult population that wants to work in the first place, never mind if they have a job or are just looking for a job — it’s what share of the adult population wants to work,” he said.
West Virginia’s labor force participation rate was 55.1% as of Sept. 20, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The U.S. labor force participation rate was 62.70%.
