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Thank you, I will try to educate myself. Here is one interesting plot: national employment-to-population ratio. Try plotting it from 1990 to 2016, it shows a s

Thank you, I will try to educate myself. Here is one interesting plot: national employment-to-population ratio. Try plotting it from 1990 to 2016, it shows a significant drop in '08 which has not recovered very much since. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000 http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000

jacobolus 10y ago
There are a number of things going on here. You have to break the numbers down to get a fuller picture. First is that there has been population growth, and a continuing shift in the age demographics of the country. The absolute number of workers is now about 6% higher than before the recession, but there are also a larger number of retirees and other non-workers. In particular the percentage of people in prime “working age” range (25–54) is 5% lower than 10 years ago. The numbers of unemployed, underemployed, and discouraged workers are all way down since the recession. Many people decide to retire (either voluntarily or after being laid off) during a recession, with no plan to return to work. So you always get a bit of a “cliff” effect, where people who might have retired over the following several years all get bundled into one group, masking the “natural” shape of the data in absence of the recession. Many others decide to go to school in the years following a recession. A larger proportion of those in the 16–24 age range are students than before the recession. The numbers of unemployed and discouraged workers are both down nearly to their pre-recession levels. http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-4/people-who-are-not-in-the-labor-force-why-arent-they-working.htm http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-4/people-who-are-not-in-t... The 2014 percentage of people claiming to be not working because disabled/ill is up 1% compared to before recession. The percentage of retirees is up 1.5%. The percentage of students is up almost 1.5%. The percentage not working for “other reasons” is only up 0.3%.

jacobolus 10y ago

There are a number of things going on here. You have to break the numbers down to get a fuller picture. First is that there has been population growth, and a continuing shift in the age demographics of the country. The absolute number of workers is now about 6% higher than before the recession, but there are also a larger number of retirees and other non-workers. In particular the percentage of people in prime “working age” range (25–54) is 5% lower than 10 years ago. The numbers of unemployed, underemployed, and discouraged workers are all way down since the recession. Many people decide to retire (either voluntarily or after being laid off) during a recession, with no plan to return to work. So you always get a bit of a “cliff” effect, where people who might have retired over the following several years all get bundled into one group, masking the “natural” shape of the data in absence of the recession. Many others decide to go to school in the years following a recession. A larger proportion of those in the 16–24 age range are students than before the recession. The numbers of unemployed and discouraged workers are both down nearly to their pre-recession levels. http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-4/people-who-are-not-in-the-labor-force-why-arent-they-working.htm http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-4/people-who-are-not-in-t... The 2014 percentage of people claiming to be not working because disabled/ill is up 1% compared to before recession. The percentage of retirees is up 1.5%. The percentage of students is up almost 1.5%. The percentage not working for “other reasons” is only up 0.3%.