[quote=FlyerInHi]One thing weird about the US economy that Fox News no longer mentions is our labor participation rate. It’s lower than other developed nations, even though we have a younger population. I think we have a huge drug problem and a lot of mentally whack people who can’t hold jobs. 1 out of 5 on psychological drugs not counting recreational pot and illegal prescriptions.
It’s confounding economists.[/quote]
Actually, it is not confounding.. though it is interesting to look at. 1/2009 it was 65.7%, 7/2019 it was 63%. The interesting part is the ‘neck’ or bend in it. It is like a backwards hocky-stick(to borrow a phrase). It hit 63.7 on 1/2012 and has kind of bounced around that number till today. I think companies were ‘shedding’ their older workers to avoid the costs of health insurance on older people. If you look at the growth in insurance costs for older workers(50 yrs old and up), you will see that in under a period of 4 years, it has doubled… which would be a rate of about 19% per year { e^(ln(2)/4) }.
Anecdotally, I know of a co-worker who was laid off at approximately the same time as I was in 2008. He has a Computer Science degree and more than 10 years experience, is a very hard worker, and has gone from one short term job to another (2 years and under on average). He is currently making the same as he did 10 years ago.
I was forced into retirement (causes outside of my control), also being over 50 and getting crap offers even though I have an E.E.C.E. degree and well over 10 years of experience. Fortunately I planned ahead and am using my time to ‘improve my yields’ on investments – which I have found to give me better returns than the wage I was earning. Ironically, I show up as a ‘not participating in the labor force’.
On a side note to this, there is a large number of unemployed homeless.. my personal opinion is that while the stock market has ‘rebounded’ due to cheap money – the labor economy has not. The new touted ‘jobber/gig/contract work’ market is full BS, and is just a way for companies to shed liabilities and costs while draining the brains of the contract workers. One can only outsource so much, and eventually the companies you outsource to will actually become a company’s competitors.
NOTE: Because labor participation rate hit 63.7 around 2012, you really can’t blame Trump for that.
Linky: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
By the way, on the graph move the starting year to 2005.. or even earlier.
On closing question though: Does the U.S. remember how to manufacture efficiently? or is there too much red tape to be able to do that?
