U.S. Jobs Market Dropouts Increasingly Likely To Stay Out
A growing number of Americans quitting the labor force are likely gone for good, offering a cautionary note to the Federal Reserve as it tries to gauge how tight the jobs market is and how quickly to raise interest rates.
For a long time, data suggested a significant portion of the decrease in labor force participation was because many job seekers had grown frustrated with their search and had given up looking. If the job market tightened enough, the thinking went, these Americans would be lured back to hunt for work again.
But a different picture is now emerging. Data shows participation in the past few years has fallen mainly because Americans have retired or signed up for disability benefits.
We already knew about the major demographic shifts going over 10 years now. Throw on top of that many older workers were sticking around just for health insurance. Now they don't have to. Then throw on top the fact that these companies have been pushing older workers out of the workforce and actually forcing them unto public assistance. And for the final knife; when companies do create job openings, they can now run the factory or office with 10 people whereas before they needed 100. The frosting on the cake: many of those who lost jobs were low-skill workers with obsolete talents.
.jpg)
We already knew about the major demographic shifts going over 10 years now. Throw on top of that many older workers were sticking around just for health insurance. Now they don't have to. Then throw on top the fact that these companies have been pushing older workers out of the workforce and actually forcing them unto public assistance. And for the final knife; when companies do create job openings, they can now run the factory or office with 10 people whereas before they needed 100. The frosting on the cake: many of those who lost jobs were low-skill workers with obsolete talents.
ReplyDelete