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> But this is ignoring the fact that automation never replaced workforce as such. But it actually did. "Workforce participation", which might be the closest me

by yobbo 4y ago

> But this is ignoring the fact that automation never replaced workforce as such. But it actually did. "Workforce participation", which might be the closest metric of what we actually mean here, keeps declining. In addition to that, we have the era of "bullshit jobs".

musingsole 4y ago
Source: https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab... Workforce Participation (a per capita metric) decreased. Starting from 2002 with a participation of 66%, the US employed ~192 million. But in 2022 at a participation of 62%, the US employed ~203 million. Absolute employment is up. Between that and productivity gains, more work is being done today than ever before.
KptMarchewa 4y ago
>keeps declining Where? It's highest in the history in Poland, Germany, Italy and very close to the top in UK. US is the outlier, even there, it kept increasing after 2015 and just the pandemic dropped it. Even then it's higher than before 70s. Even in aging Japan it's very close to top.
- yobbo 4y ago
  https://data.oecd.org/chart/6UQi https://data.oecd.org/chart/6UQi It doesn't look as bad as I thought, but I suspect some national statistics are using evermore generous definitions of "participation". For example, people in higher education being included. That group is increasing as proportion of the population, especially in some European countries with laughably high official statistics.
  - KptMarchewa 4y ago
    Some of this data is straight up bad in the earlier days, like drastic around 2000 in several countries or Italy in 1992. Another examples are Estonia or Russia around soviet union disintegration. The labor statistics of socialist countries were extremely bloated. The point about education does not make sense to me - the percent of higher education students in Poland is dropping in the last years, and the participation rate keeps climbing.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  US labor force participation rate has been dropping for at least 20 years. Lower birth rates means this is inevitable basically everywhere. https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab...
  - KptMarchewa 4y ago
    > Lower birth rates means this is inevitable basically everywhere. Not really, it generally means older people will work.

by yobbo 4y ago

musingsole 4y ago

Source: https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab... Workforce Participation (a per capita metric) decreased. Starting from 2002 with a participation of 66%, the US employed ~192 million. But in 2022 at a participation of 62%, the US employed ~203 million. Absolute employment is up. Between that and productivity gains, more work is being done today than ever before.

KptMarchewa 4y ago

>keeps declining Where? It's highest in the history in Poland, Germany, Italy and very close to the top in UK. US is the outlier, even there, it kept increasing after 2015 and just the pandemic dropped it. Even then it's higher than before 70s. Even in aging Japan it's very close to top.

yobbo 4y ago
https://data.oecd.org/chart/6UQi https://data.oecd.org/chart/6UQi It doesn't look as bad as I thought, but I suspect some national statistics are using evermore generous definitions of "participation". For example, people in higher education being included. That group is increasing as proportion of the population, especially in some European countries with laughably high official statistics.
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  Some of this data is straight up bad in the earlier days, like drastic around 2000 in several countries or Italy in 1992. Another examples are Estonia or Russia around soviet union disintegration. The labor statistics of socialist countries were extremely bloated. The point about education does not make sense to me - the percent of higher education students in Poland is dropping in the last years, and the participation rate keeps climbing.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
US labor force participation rate has been dropping for at least 20 years. Lower birth rates means this is inevitable basically everywhere. https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab...
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  > Lower birth rates means this is inevitable basically everywhere. Not really, it generally means older people will work.