The number of people willing to work can be usefully defined as the unemployed component of the labor force plus those not actively seeking work, and thus not counted in the labor force, but who nonetheless say they would like a job if they could get one.
This pool of potential workers aged 16 to 64 currently numbers about 10 million, or just 5¾ percent of that group’s population – the lowest such percentage on record, which begins in 1970, and 2½ percentage points below its average over that period.