2 ms·

Look how much the workforce participation rate has varied over the last 20 years. Only a few percentage points even through massive global recessions. Small per

Look how much the workforce participation rate has varied over the last 20 years. Only a few percentage points even through massive global recessions. Small percentage changes in this statistic can easily deceive the layman into thinking it's not a big deal.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
I do not understand why a change from 63% to 62% is a sufficiently big deal to be able to claim “millions of Americans decided to stop looking for work”, especially when we know a greater and greater proportion of the population is elderly who cannot work.
- echelon 4y ago
  I would really love to see these statistics broken down by industry, salary band, age, etc.
  - shagie 4y ago
    https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf Table A on page 5 has one breakdown. Table B on page 6 has employment by industry.
- acchow 4y ago
  Working age population is 207M. So 1% actually translates to millions of people (2 million)
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    I admit that is technically true, but due to their use of the word “cratered”, I was reading the phrase to mean that relatively large amounts of people have decided to no longer work (outside of those who have decided to no longer work due to aging out). Of course, prices are set at the margin, and so if hotels (and other businesses like restaurants and retail) were used to paying the lowest pay to quality of life at work ratio, then I guess it would be accurate to say their problem is a couple million people decided to no longer work, because presumably a greater proportion of those who decided to no longer work would have been from these least desirable to work in businesses.
    - acchow 4y ago
      One thing to keep in mind is that 2 million people EXITING THE LABOR FORCE is a really huge deal. By comparison, during the 2008 recession (Dec 2007 to June 2009, approx 18 months long), about 1 million people exited the labor force.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

I do not understand why a change from 63% to 62% is a sufficiently big deal to be able to claim “millions of Americans decided to stop looking for work”, especially when we know a greater and greater proportion of the population is elderly who cannot work.

echelon 4y ago
I would really love to see these statistics broken down by industry, salary band, age, etc.
- shagie 4y ago
  https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf Table A on page 5 has one breakdown. Table B on page 6 has employment by industry.
acchow 4y ago
Working age population is 207M. So 1% actually translates to millions of people (2 million)
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  I admit that is technically true, but due to their use of the word “cratered”, I was reading the phrase to mean that relatively large amounts of people have decided to no longer work (outside of those who have decided to no longer work due to aging out). Of course, prices are set at the margin, and so if hotels (and other businesses like restaurants and retail) were used to paying the lowest pay to quality of life at work ratio, then I guess it would be accurate to say their problem is a couple million people decided to no longer work, because presumably a greater proportion of those who decided to no longer work would have been from these least desirable to work in businesses.
  - acchow 4y ago
    One thing to keep in mind is that 2 million people EXITING THE LABOR FORCE is a really huge deal. By comparison, during the 2008 recession (Dec 2007 to June 2009, approx 18 months long), about 1 million people exited the labor force.