A job seeker speaks with a State Department employee about job opportunities with the federal government during a job fair in Boston. (AP Photo)
The BLS defines discouraged workers as “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.”
In April, there were 835,000 discouraged workers, up from 803,000 discouraged workers in March.
The unemployment rate overall for April dropped slightly, to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent in March, with payrolls adding 165,000 jobs.
The long-term unemployment rate also remained high at 37.4 percent.