4 ms·

Unemployment is a b.s. number. What matters is working-age labor participation rate, and it's been declining since 1999. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LN

Unemployment is a b.s. number. What matters is working-age labor participation rate, and it's been declining since 1999. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

dragonwriter 4y ago
Even if one agrees that that is the most relevant figure of merit (which would imply, among other things, that FIRE, and moving out of the proletariat into the bourgeoisie, petit or haut, more generally, is an adverse social trend—which is not an uncommon position for communists, but rare for anyone else), it seems to have bottomed out, in trend terms, in the mid-2010s (while it did a sudden drop back down with COVID and associated restrictions, it has recovered quickly since that.)
- nostromo 4y ago
  Retiring because you’re rich enough to not work is a great thing. But don’t fool yourself - that’s not why millions of people permanently left the workforce. Thankfully you’re right and it has seemed to recover a lot of ground since ~2016.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > But don’t fool yourself - that’s not why millions of people permanently left the workforce. If the working age LFPR drop wasn’t a combination of earlier retirement for both men and women who did well in the strong aggregate economy of the the 90s boom and men doing more higher education, why are the big drops of working age LFPR in the period it was dropping: (1) A big drop in men at the youngest age bracket included (25-34), that is not reflected a decade later in the 35-44 group, and (2) A smaller drop in both men and women in the oldest age category of the “working age” group (45-54).
adrr 4y ago
More parents are staying home to take care kids than in 1999. Labor participation numbers don't look at the reason people don't work. I've taken two years off to take care of my kids and my wife works part time. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/24/stay-at-home-moms-and-dads-account-for-about-one-in-five-u-s-parents/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/24/stay-at-hom...

dragonwriter 4y ago

Even if one agrees that that is the most relevant figure of merit (which would imply, among other things, that FIRE, and moving out of the proletariat into the bourgeoisie, petit or haut, more generally, is an adverse social trend—which is not an uncommon position for communists, but rare for anyone else), it seems to have bottomed out, in trend terms, in the mid-2010s (while it did a sudden drop back down with COVID and associated restrictions, it has recovered quickly since that.)

nostromo 4y ago
Retiring because you’re rich enough to not work is a great thing. But don’t fool yourself - that’s not why millions of people permanently left the workforce. Thankfully you’re right and it has seemed to recover a lot of ground since ~2016.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > But don’t fool yourself - that’s not why millions of people permanently left the workforce. If the working age LFPR drop wasn’t a combination of earlier retirement for both men and women who did well in the strong aggregate economy of the the 90s boom and men doing more higher education, why are the big drops of working age LFPR in the period it was dropping: (1) A big drop in men at the youngest age bracket included (25-34), that is not reflected a decade later in the 35-44 group, and (2) A smaller drop in both men and women in the oldest age category of the “working age” group (45-54).

adrr 4y ago

More parents are staying home to take care kids than in 1999. Labor participation numbers don't look at the reason people don't work. I've taken two years off to take care of my kids and my wife works part time. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/24/stay-at-home-moms-and-dads-account-for-about-one-in-five-u-s-parents/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/24/stay-at-hom...