More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June 2012 than got new jobs

The economy created 80,000 jobs in June 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. In contrast, 85,000 workers left the workforce to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program that same month, according to the Social Security Administration. The disability ranks have been consistently ahead of job growth throughout the past three years. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, as many of 3.1 million people have become recipients of federal disability insurance. The number of new disability beneficiaries has climbed 19% faster than the number of jobs created during the same period marked by sluggish recovery. In total, a record of 8,733,461 workers took federal disability insurance payments in June 2012, exceeding the entire population of New York City by more than 500,000, according to the Social Security Administration. And the trend is expected to continue. In just the last month, almost 275,000 people filed for disability benefits. Experts say that more people try to get on disability when jobs are hard to find, and changes to eligibility rules enacted back in 1984 have made it far easier to qualify. The Social Security System’s Disability Insurance Trust Fund has run deficits in each of the last three fiscal years, meaning that the government has been forced to borrow money to pay disability benefits to the workers claiming them. The number of people who have left the workforce altogether has jumped by 7.3 million since 2009. While same have retired, the vast majority either signed up for disability, went back to school, or just gave up on the idea of finding a job. In June 1992, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 120 million Americans were working for a living, compared to a little over 3 million who were relying on disability payments. That equaled about one person taking disability payments for every 35.5 people on the labor force. Some 20 years later, that ratio has dramatically changed, with more than twice as many people receiving payments from the government.