Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

In June there were record numbers of people on federal disability, but unfortunately these kinds of records are made to be broken… quickly:

The number of workers taking federal disability insurance payments hit yet another record in July, increasing to 8,753,935 during the month from the previous record of 8,733,461 set in June, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

The 8,753,935 workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July exceeded the population of 39 of the 50 states. Only 11 states — California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey — had more people in them than the number of workers on the federal disability insurance rolls in July.

For many, disability is the new extended unemployment, and the trend is completely unsustainable:

By July 1967, there 74,520,000 Americans actually working and 1,145,663 workers taking disability payments. That made a ratio of 65 actual workers for each worker collecting disability. In July 1987, there were 112,634,000 people actually working and 2,759,852 people collecting disability—a ratio of about 41 actual workers to each worker collecting disability.

When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, there were 142,187,000 people actually working and 7,442,377 workers collecting disability—a ratio of about 19 to 1.

In June, there were 142,415,000 people actually working and 8,733,461 workers claiming disability—a ratio of about 16 to 1.

**Written by Doug Powers

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