There are a hell of a lot of Americans not working; about 95 million of them. It's been all over the internet so I don't know how anyone could be surprised.
Actually, it's more like 171 million people in the U.S. not working. (total population in December of 324,212,649. Minus 151,798,000 employed and another million military in the U.S.)
The problem with unemployment statistics is that the picture looks either good or bad depending on how you count the unemployed. The 5% figure includes those who are actively seeking employment; however it does not include those who have become discouraged and quit looking for work.
It also excludes children, prisoners, those in institutions, people who don't want or can't work or just aren't trying.
So, we have 171 million not working. Now if you want to limit it to those 16 and older who are not in prison or an institution (nursing home, mental institute etc.), that takes us down to 102,944,000 not working.
But not everyone wants to or is able to work. So eliminating those who say they either don't want to work or are too disabled to work at all, we have 12,619,000 people who want to work but aren't.
But you can't get a job if you don't TRY to get a job, can you? Not everyone who says they want a job is doing anything about it and therefore are not available. Of that 12,619,000 who want to work, 3,206,000 did not do one single thing to find work from December 2015 to 2016. Nothing at all. So I think we can say that the fact that they are not working does NOT tell us anything about the current job market.
Down to 9,413,000 people who looked for work sometime between December 2015 and December 2016. Wait....559,000 say that even if they had been offered a job in December, they would not have been able to start work then. So again, that they aren't working doesn't tell us anything about the job market.
Ok, down to 8,854,000 people willing, able, and looked for work sometime since December 2015. That gives us an unemployment rate of 5.5% (known as the U-5 measure of underutilization).
But not all of those people were looking in December itself. So if we want to look at monthly changes and see what things were like specifically in December, That's 7,170,000 who actually looked for work in December. Oh, but you're saying those not looking in December who say they stopped looking due to discouragement are "just as unemployed." There are 426,000 of them.
But why do you think they are "just as unemployed" when they could not be hired even if there were available jobs because they're not doing anything about work? And why are they just as unemployed, but those who also want and could work but are not longer looking for personal reasons are not just as unemployed?
I say that those not trying to work are as unavailable as those who do not want or are unable to work.
The unemployment figures also do not show how many are underemployed.
Why should they? People who have jobs, even shitty jobs, are still employed.