Why did labor force nonparticipation increase from 1999 to 2022?

People who are neither working nor looking for work are counted as “not in the labor force” by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. From 1999 to 2022, the percentage of people aged 16 and older who were not in the labor force increased. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and its Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) provide some insight into why people are not in the labor force.1 The ASEC is administered in the months of February through April and includes questions about work and other activities in the previous calendar year. For example, data collected in 2000 pertain to the 1999 calendar year, and data collected in 2023 cover the 2022 calendar year.2 In the ASEC, people who did not work at all in the previous year are asked to give the main reason why they did not work.3 Interviewers place survey participants’ responses into the following six categories: (1) ill or disabled and