In November 2012, 350,000 Americans dropped out of the work force. Here are some quotes from the media about this truly dismal situation:
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its monthly report on employment and unemployment in the United States. Overall, the May data shows little sign that the economy is improving. The prospects for the long-term unemployed remain poor.

By the numbers:

• Nominal unemployment rate: 8.2 percent
• Number of unemployed Americans: 12,720,000
• Average weeks unemployed: 39.7
• Number of Americans unemployed over 27 weeks: 5,411,000
• Workers discouraged and not looking: 830,000

And, here are the current unemployment rates by sex, ethnicity and education:

• Men over age 20: 7.8 percent
• Women over age 20: 7.4 percent
• Whites: 7.4 percent
• Blacks: 13.6 percent
• Hispanic / Latino: 11.0 percent
• No high school diploma: 13.0 percent
• High school diploma only: 8.1 percent
• 4 yr degree of higher: 3.9 percent

The Romney campaign is highlighting the record of the Obama administration on employment for women. The following graphs illustrate the record. Click on the graph for a larger view.

Graph showing female unemployment rate in the US 1992 to March 2012. Created by Charles Simmins from BLS data.	This graph shows the unemployment rate for women age 20 and older from January 1992 to March 2012.
Graph showing female unemployment rate in the US 1992 to March 2012. Created by Charles Simmins from BLS data.	This graph shows the unemployment rate for women age 20 and older from January 2000 to March 2012. Note the record low during the last Clinton term in 2007.
Graph showing female unemployment rate in the US 2006 to March 2012. Created by Charles Simmins from BLS data.	This graph shows the unemployment rate for women age 20 and older from January 2006 to March 2012. The graph illustrates the onset of the recession and female unemployment rates during the Obama administration.
Graph illustrating the number of unemployed women in the US from 2000 to March 2012. Graph prepared by Charles Simmins using BLS data.	Graph illustrating the number of unemployed women in the US from 2000 to March 2012. Note the record low number and compare it to the number of women unemployed in March 2012. Over three million more women are unemployed now.
Graph illustrating the number of women employed in the U.S. from 2000 through March 2012. Prepared by Charles Simmins from BLS data.	This graph illustrates the number of American women over age 20 employed from 2000 through March 2012. Note the record number employed in June 2008. The loss of employment from June 2008 to March 2012 is 759,000 women.

The increase in unemployed women coupled with a net loss of women in the work force is dramatic. Couple that with the fact that 34 percent of Americans living in poverty live in a household headed by a woman and you can see the damage that the current economy has done to women.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a great deal to say about the November 2011 unemployment numbers and the October numbers from the metro areas. The unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent from 9 percent in November. In October, the unemployment rates fell in 281 of the 372 metro areas the BLS watches.

The pictures tell a far more discouraging tale. These graphs are from the BLS site, using their data. None of the graphs present any sort of encouraging picture for those who are unemployed or those who have given up. And, lots of folks have just given up.

Graph of the percentage of Americans employed compared to the general population for November 2011

Graph of the percentage of Americans who could work that had a job in November 2011

Graph of the average weeks of unemployment for Americans in November 2011

Graph of the number of Americans unemployed over 27 weeks for November 2011

Graph of the number of Americans discouraged from looking for work for November 2011

The graphs were built to show both the current record or near record “bad” numbers as well as their opposites from the Clinton and Bush Administrations. Fewer people are working and more people have dropped out of the labor force. That is the tale of November 2011.

The slideshow illustrates the unemployment data for each July for the last decade, 2002 to 2011.