These reports are stupid. Does not account for people in school and college, people who have retired, disability, etc.
Yes it does. All of those folks are included. From the article: "People over age 16 who are no longer working or even looking for work, for whatever reason (retirement, school, personal preference, or gave up), are counted as not participating in the labor force."
What this report doesn't do is segregate the people who are no longer looking based on futility, school, retirement, etc. But the fact remains the rate grew substantially under Obama.
I think the growth of this number is related to the expansion of the number of people on public assistance.