2 ms·

> labor force participation was 63.4% immediately before the pandemic shut down and it's 62.1% right now. How is that possible when it seems like every place i

> labor force participation was 63.4% immediately before the pandemic shut down and it's 62.1% right now. How is that possible when it seems like every place is hiring? It's obvious that retail/restaurants are short-handed, but every manufacturing company in town is hiring. Every week there are articles in the news talking with business owners about how hard it is to find people, people accept the job and don't start, they quit after two days...

clusterhacks 4y ago
In my area of the US, I have a suspicion that undocumented workers left the area during the pandemic. But it is just anecdotal observation - I don't have an special source of data to support that. Lots of "heard a story from a friend" and just noticing how easy it is for high school students to get jobs almost immediately versus 2018-2019. Around here, 16-year olds are walking into food service/retail and working the next day . . . A few years prior to the pandemic, my brother shared a story from the medium-sized manufacturing company he worked at. A rumor started that an "ICE raid" was going to occur sometime during the week. Something like 1/2 to 2/3 of the factory workers didn't show for work over the next couple of days. Even assuming it was less impact than that, it seems to say that a significant number of factory floor workers were in some kind of position that caused them to fear ICE. I am . . . bearish . . . on trusting news articles about this topic. There are just so many incentives to shape articles to get clicks . . .