4 ms·

I think it is the labor market. Pandemic caused a lot of people to leave the labor market.

• 7speter 4y ago
  But we’re at full employment…
  • yxhuvud 4y ago
    Which is a statement that doesn't gainsay what you commented on in any way. People leaving the labor market is not measured by the unemployment rate, it is measured by the labor participation rate.
  • steve_adams_86 4y ago
    Not sure what to make it of it, but statistics suggest that our per unit output of labour has dropped substantially. So, good employment rate or not, we’re producing less with our labour either way. This is the case in the United States and Canada, at least. Not sure about the rest of the world.
    • YokoZar 4y ago
      Naively, you would expect a bit of a drop in productivity when going to full employment, as the least productive workers are generally hired last. Total production, notably, is still increasing.
  • lotsofpulp 4y ago
    Labor force participation rate is lower than pre pandemic. https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab... I assume it resumes overall downward trend simply due to aging population.
  • icedchai 4y ago
    The people who “drop out” of the labor market (not working and don’t collect unemployment) basically are not counted. They are not considered part of the labor force. I know people who get burned out and live off their savings for long periods of time.
    • bitshiftfaced 4y ago
      Interestingly, even though the labor participation rate hasn't returned to pre-covid levels, total civilian labor force levels have: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CLF16OV#0 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CLF16OV#0
  • time_to_smile 4y ago
    Full employment of a smaller labor force, you need to look at the labor force participation rate [0] to get the whole picture. Yes unemployment is at near record lows, but the percent of the population in the work force is the lower than its been since the 1970s. 0. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART
    • eigen 4y ago
      > Full employment of a smaller labor force, the civilian labor force is higher than ever. as of Sept 2022, 153M non-farm workers [1], 130M private employees [2]. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USPRIV https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USPRIV
      • time_to_smile 4y ago
        I feel like I shouldn't have to explain the idea of participation rate but what you've posted is the numerator, you need to divide it by total working age population to get the rate.
        • eigen 4y ago
          you said "Full employment of a smaller labor force". its not a smaller labor force. its a larger labor force as the number of employees is at an all-time high.
• mjevans 4y ago
  Two things would improve Labor... 4 An immigration policy that allows new (eager to work for less) citizens a legal path to work within the country, and maybe even become full citizens in the future. 1 More housing so workers can afford to live near where the jobs are.