by Devin Dwyer

I went looking through the February job loss report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics today, which says 31.7 million men and 49.4 million women "not in the labor force" in February for various reasons.

The government doesn't include these sidelined workers in the national unemployment rate. But that doesn't mean many of them wouldn't like a job. In one table, a significant and growing number say they stopped searching for work because of "discouragement over job prospects."

That category includes 281,000 women compared to 450,000 men, everyone who "thinks no work is available, could not find work, [or] lacks schooling or training." It also includes those who reported as "employer thinks too young or old, and other types of discrimination."