NILF stands for Not in Labor Force. It counts Americans age 16 and over who are neither working nor actively looking for work — retirees, students, caregivers, people with disabilities, and discouraged workers who have stopped searching. It is published monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How many Americans are not in the labor force?

As of the latest BLS jobs report, a record 105.8 million Americans are not in the labor force — the highest level ever recorded.

Why is the NILF number rising?

The biggest driver is demographics: roughly 11,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every day. But the number also rises when working-age people stop looking for work — discouraged workers, caregivers, and people sidelined by health issues or a weak job market.

Is being not in the labor force the same as being unemployed?

No. To count as unemployed you must be actively looking for work. People not in the labor force are not looking at all, so they never show up in the unemployment rate — which is why the unemployment rate can look low even while millions leave the workforce.

When does the NILF number update?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases it with the monthly jobs report, usually the first Friday of each month at 8:30am ET. This tracker updates automatically from the official BLS data.

NILF Tracker — Americans Not in the Labor Force (Live BLS Data)

Not in Labor Force

105.8M

Americans 16+, seasonally adjusted

1-Month Change

+832K

vs prior month

1-Year Change

—

vs same month last year

Participation Rate

61.5%

Share of adults in the labor force

Employed Share

59.0%

Employment-population ratio

Americans Not in the Labor Force · millions, seasonally adjusted

Loading BLS data…

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, series LNS15000000 · chartread.ai/nilf-tracker

H-1B workers in, Americans out

New foreign workers approved under the H-1B visa program, next to the change in Americans not in the labor force — the two numbers everyone argues about, on one chart.

New H-1B Workers Approved

114,806

FY 2025 initial-employment petitions (USCIS)

Americans Who Left the Labor Force

+2,603,000

Past 12 months (BLS)

Over the past 12 months, roughly 23 Americans left the labor force for every 1 new H-1B worker approved.

New H-1B approvals NILF change (same fiscal year)

Fiscal years (Oct–Sep). H-1B = petitions approved for initial employment (new workers, not renewals): USCIS Characteristics Report FY2024 Table 1b; FY2025 per NFAP analysis of the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub. NILF change = BLS series LNS15000000, September to September. Shown side by side for scale; NILF includes retirees and students, and this chart does not claim one number causes the other.

Who's hiring the H-1Bs

The companies approved for the most H-1B workers in FY 2025, split the way USCIS counts them: brand-new visas vs. renewals of workers already here.

#	Company	Renewals · FY 2025 (existing H-1B workers extended)	New · FY 2025
1	Amazon	14,532	4,644
2	TCS	5,293	846
3	Microsoft	4,863	1,394
4	Meta	4,740	1,555
5	Apple	4,610	823
6	Google	4,509	1,050
7	Deloitte	3,673	432
8	Cognizant	3,622	743
9	Walmart	2,755	478
10	Infosys	2,634	—
11	JPMorgan Chase	2,515	553
12	Oracle	2,266	482
13	Ernst & Young	2,066	718
14	HCL America	1,877	379
15	Fidelity	1,839	—
16	Cisco	1,807	—
17	LTIMindtree	1,806	401
18	Capgemini	1,785	401
19	Accenture	1,642	—
20	Wipro	1,573	—

U.S. company IT outsourcing firm

The outsourcer shift: the India-based IT staffing firms that once dominated the program — TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL and the rest — are fading from new visas. The top seven combined were approved for just 4,573 new H-1Bs in FY 2025, down 70% from FY 2015. The visas didn't disappear: Big Tech took their place at the top (Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google held all four top spots for new visas for the first time ever), while the outsourcers keep renewing the workers they already have in the country.

Ranked by renewals, the closest public measure of a company's existing H-1B workforce — no agency publishes exact current headcounts, and one worker can be approved more than once in a year (e.g. extension + location change). "—" = below the top 25 for new visas (under ~300). For scale: 28,277 different employers were approved for at least one new H-1B in FY 2025; 61% were approved for exactly one. Source: NFAP analysis of the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, FY 2025 (Oct 2024–Sep 2025). Updated annually.

Who's filing right now — and what they pay

Every H-1B hire starts with a wage filing to the Department of Labor. These are the top filers in the first half of FY 2026 (Oct 2025–Mar 2026), with the median salary on their filings — computed directly from the government's raw disclosure file.

Applications Certified

183,993

in six months

Annual Visa Cap

85,000

2.2× the cap filed in half a year

Employers Filing

26,906

distinct companies

#	Company	Applications Filed · FY 2026 H1	Median Salary Filed
1	Amazon	7,646	$153,667
2	Ernst & Young	3,993	$151,743
3	Cognizant	3,456	$113,797
4	Apple	3,286	$173,884
5	Google	2,979	$193,440
6	Microsoft	2,879	$180,710
7	Meta	2,534	$214,032
8	Infosys	2,454	$92,581
9	Deloitte	2,378	$144,640
10	TCS	1,836	$91,874
11	JPMorgan Chase	1,796	$159,824
12	Intel	1,549	$129,890
13	Nvidia	1,231	$188,293
14	Compunnel	1,183	$113,000
15	Fidelity	1,080	$125,119

U.S. company IT outsourcing / staffing firm

The two-tier wage structure, in the government's own data: Infosys files at a median of $92,581 and TCS at $91,874 — while Meta files at $214,032 and Google at $193,440. Same visa, same "specialty occupation" label, less than half the salary. Every number on this table comes from the wage filings employers themselves submitted to the Department of Labor.

Computed from the U.S. Department of Labor's raw LCA disclosure file, FY 2026 Q2 (certified H-1B applications, Oct 1 2025 – Mar 31 2026). Filing ≠ hire: one application can cover multiple workers, and employers file for far more than they use — the over-filing is itself part of how the program works. Median annualized offered wage per application; corporate affiliates merged (e.g. Amazon's entities). Updated quarterly when DOL posts the next file.

Beyond the H-1B: the other pipelines

The H-1B gets the headlines, but it isn't the biggest door. These programs put as many or more foreign workers into U.S. jobs — several with fewer rules than the H-1B has.

OPT / STEM OPT · Foreign Graduates

276KNO PAYROLL TAX

Foreign students working after graduation, up to 3 years. No cap, no lottery, no wage floor — and while they count as nonresidents, neither the worker nor the employer pays Social Security or Medicare tax. A foreign grad costs an employer 7.65% less than an American in the same seat.

L-1 · Intracompany Transfers

~75K/yrNO WAGE FLOOR

Multinationals transferring their own overseas staff into U.S. offices. No annual cap, no lottery, and unlike the H-1B, no prevailing-wage requirement at all — the pipeline outsourcing firms lean on when H-1Bs get tight.

H-4 EAD · H-1B Spouses

~100K

Open-market work permits for spouses of H-1B holders. Any job, any wage, no labor-market test — a second worker enters the job market for every H-1B family that qualifies.

H-2B · Seasonal Non-Farm

~130KCAP DOUBLED

Landscaping, hotels, seafood processing, construction labor. The legal cap is 66,000 — but "supplemental" visas have roughly doubled it. This one competes directly with blue-collar American workers, the group most represented in the NILF surge.

Sources: OPT count per USCIS/SEVIS data (276,452 with OPT work authorization; the FICA exemption applies while the worker is a nonresident alien for tax purposes, typically the first 5 calendar years); L-1 per State Department visa issuance statistics; H-4 EAD per USCIS approvals data; H-2B per DHS cap and supplemental-visa announcements for FY 2025. The J-1 exchange program (100K+ summer workers, also payroll-tax-exempt) adds another seasonal pipeline. Updated annually.

Earned here, sent there

Remittances: money earned working in the United States and transferred out of the U.S. economy to family abroad. America is the #1 remittance-sending country on Earth.

$100B+

leaves the U.S. in remittances every year — money earned in American paychecks that is never spent in an American store, at an American business, or on an American worker.

Mexico

$65B

≈95% of it sent from the U.S.

India

$32B

world's largest recipient; U.S. is its #1 source

Guatemala

$21.5B

more than doubled since 2019

Philippines

$14B

U.S. is the #1 source of its $40B in inflows

Honduras

$9.5B

≈90% of it sent from the U.S.

Estimated U.S.-sourced remittance flows, largest corridors. Sources: World Bank/KNOMAD remittance data (U.S. outflows exceeded $100B in 2024); Banco de México (Mexico received ~$65B in 2024, ≈95% from the U.S.); Federal Reserve (top U.S. corridors: Mexico, India, Guatemala; India and Philippines figures are the estimated U.S. shares of their $138B and $40B inflows); central-bank data for Guatemala and Honduras. Official figures exclude informal transfers, so true totals run higher. Updated annually.

Deeper cuts

The headline number hides the argument. These four series settle it — all live from the same BLS survey.

Prime-Age (25–54) Participation

83.3%

The "it's just boomers retiring" test. This tracks only working-age Americans — if it falls while NILF surges, the dropouts aren't retirees.

They Want a Job

6.0M

People inside the NILF count who say they want a job right now. They aren't "unemployed" only because they've stopped actively searching.

Working 2+ Jobs

8.6M

Multiple jobholders. While millions leave the labor force entirely, millions more need a second job to make the math work.

Who Got the Jobs — Past 12 Months

—

Native-born

—

Foreign-born

Change in employed workers by place of birth over the past year. Not seasonally adjusted, so only the 12-month change is meaningful. Foreign-born includes naturalized citizens, green-card holders, and visa workers.

What does NILF mean?

NILF stands for "Not in Labor Force." It's the government's count of every American age 16 and over who is neither working nor actively looking for work. If you don't have a job and you haven't searched for one in the past four weeks, you're not "unemployed" in the official numbers — you're NILF.

That distinction matters more than most people realize. The unemployment rate only counts people actively job hunting. When someone gives up the search entirely, they drop out of the unemployment rate and into the NILF bucket — which can make the job market look healthier than it is.

Why traders watch it: a low unemployment rate with a surging NILF number can mean workers are leaving the labor force, not finding jobs. That shapes Federal Reserve rate decisions, wage pressure, and consumer spending — all of which move markets.

Who counts as Not in the Labor Force?

🏖️

Retirees

The biggest group. Roughly 11,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every single day.

🎓

Students

Full-time students not working or job hunting while in school.

🏠

Caregivers

People home caring for children or family members full time.

🏥

Illness & Disability

People unable to work due to health conditions or disability.

😞

Discouraged Workers

People who want a job but stopped looking because they don't believe they'll find one. The group economists watch closest.

The debate isn't whether the number rises — an aging country guarantees that. It's how fast. When NILF jumps by hundreds of thousands in a single month, the question becomes: is that retirements on schedule, or working-age people getting pushed out?

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NILF FAQ

Is NILF the same as unemployment?

No. To be counted as unemployed, you must be actively looking for work. NILF counts people who aren't looking at all. That's why the unemployment rate can stay low while millions leave the workforce — they simply stop being counted.

Why did the NILF number just hit a record?

Two forces stack on top of each other: an aging population (boomer retirements add to the count every month, mechanically) and cyclical dropouts — discouraged workers, caregivers, and people sidelined by health or a cooling job market. The monthly surprise is almost always in the second group.

Where does this data come from?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey — the same monthly survey behind the unemployment rate. This page pulls series LNS15000000 (Not in Labor Force, seasonally adjusted) directly from the official BLS API. It's public, free government data.

When does it update?

With every monthly jobs report — usually the first Friday of the month at 8:30am ET. This tracker refreshes automatically, so it always shows the latest official number.

Does a rising NILF number mean the economy is bad?

Not automatically. A retirement wave raises it in a perfectly healthy economy. The bearish signal is when the prime-age (25–54) participation rate falls at the same time — that means working-age people are leaving, not just boomers retiring. Watch both together.