The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force

The Washington Post:

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

Read the whole story at The Washington Post

Comments

[MiddleMolly]

01:50 AM on 05/08/2012

Over one half of the people "not in the labor force" are people over 55 who do not want to work.

Why are those people not in the labor force?

http://mollysmiddleamerica.blogspot.com/2012/05/people-not-in-labor-force.html

[butlercaddie]

08:44 AM on 05/07/2012

As the boomers retire, this number continues to go down. But this does not reflect any kind of political shortcoming. Rather, the industries are cutting American jobs through attrition and shipping them overseas. Therefore they avoid the "Gigantocorp just cut 1200 jobs..." headlines but still reap the same effect.

In the meantime, the private sector is sitting on $2 trillion in cash not building anything, not creating anything, not hiring anyone.

And this is why the nation's economic health should not be left to the "invisible hand of the market" because too often the health of their own balance sheet runs contrary to the public good.

[Robert SF]

03:55 AM on 05/07/2012

If you adjust for the changing labor force, we have been dragging along since the start of 2010. There has been no upward trend in almost 30 months!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/521/unemploymentpicture.gif

[DEmusicman]

04:37 PM on 05/06/2012

The only real growth many of us see is the volume of BS coming from the GOP camp....imagine, they deliberately tank the economy in 2008 and then have the b*lls to blame everyone else for it.....all of them should be thrown out int ehs treet with nothing but the clothes on their backs...let them deal with the mess they created.

[johmich5]

03:06 PM on 05/06/2012

The Incredible Shrinking Labor Force
-----------------
"Yes we can" Bankrupt America "yes we can."

[johmich5thefool]

04:47 PM on 05/06/2012

The incredible party of the rich who exhult the working class while simultaneously spitting on them
Here's another slogan for you "Mission accomplished" America "Mission Accomplished"

[johmich5]

11:11 PM on 05/06/2012

johmich5thefool
--------
Wow you created a username just to mock me, I am impressed and honored.

Perhaps some facts might ease the delusion?

“ total debt of $15.35 trillion as of January 2012. The fiscal year 2011 "total budget" deficit was $1.296 trillion or 8.7% GDP, similar to the $1.294 trillion or 9.0% GDP in 2010. These deficits are considerably higher than pre-crisis levels, which ranged from a $236 billion (2.4% GDP) surplus in 2000 to a $459 billion (3.2% GDP) deficit in 2008.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

“With significantly lower revenues and higher outlays, debt would reach 87 percent of GDP by 2020, CBO projects. After that, the growing imbalance between revenues and noninterest spending, combined with spiraling interest payments, would swiftly push debt to unsustainable levels. Debt as a share of GDP would exceed its historical peak of 109 percent by 2025 and would reach 185 percent in 2035.”
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/21546

Interest expected to hit 9 trillion in the next decade.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/19/news/economy/debt_interest/index.htm

Who raises the debt ceiling more from 1986-2010, Red or Blue ? Red=1.5 Trillion, Blue=7 Trillion,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Public_Debt_Ceiling_1981-2010.png

Under Obama the rich are getting richer then under Bush or Clinton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPQNwM7n-l0

[frdm399]

02:32 PM on 05/06/2012

Democrats plan is working to perfection, more people on the government dole the more votes they get. Now obama wants to scrap "Buy American" to to ensure China is successful and outsourced jobs stay outsourced.

[Mac Howard]

10:18 PM on 05/06/2012

Obama wants to scrap "Buy American" so that American consumers will benefit from cheaper goods and services and American businesses will gain access to a market of over a billion people and gdp growth of around 8%.

[EdCorner]

02:19 PM on 05/06/2012

Since 2009 they changed the metrics of how unemployment is measured by taking those they consider not actively seeking work out of the measurement. This has made the unemployment rate appear to go down when actually it's going up. They are doing the same with inflation metrics in not counting food and fuel costs. It's all about illusion in this administration - that's all.

[frdm399]

02:27 PM on 05/06/2012

In addition, you won't here this administration talk about how the average family income has dropped $4200 since obama has been in office.

[leedan]

06:01 PM on 05/06/2012

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t24.htm

[Tom Iarossi]

11:08 AM on 05/06/2012

"another significant factor is that baby boomers are beginning to retire early"

This seems to be an overlooked aspect of this. The huge bubble from 1946 to 1964 that inflated the work force from 1964 to now is retiring. I'm 61 and I'm retired, and each year over 3 million of us reach retirement age. The article also notes that adult participation in the workforce has been declining for 12 years.

What is the net effect of all that on the total number, and does it relieve some of the concern? Only intelligent answers, please.

[trailerguy]

11:48 AM on 05/06/2012

tou think this would lower unemploymnet, and i think it will be noticed when and if our econmy ever get into high gear again. Of course the fip side of the coin, is retired folks tend to consume less. they don't need to go out and buy new furniture or otherwise aquire new possesions. Some retierd folk I know ditched the garnedr and other services to do them themselves.
I remeber it wa just a few years ago that many industries were worrying were ther future workers were coming, even the marine trade industry which had never worried before

[Tom Iarossi]

12:01 PM on 05/06/2012

Sounds logical. I also heard that since the stock market has recovered so nicely, the average 401k has almost doubled in value in three years. That would seem to point to increased retirements to cash in on it before it crashes again.

[petef59]

10:35 AM on 05/06/2012

Look back to major magazines of the 1950's-1970's: business leaders, professors of various fields, legislators, etc (all national leadership) touted the future benfits of increased computer, automation and associated producivity increases which would lead to a shorter work week for ALL workers. This shorter work week would allow for time with family, community and educational opportunity. All we've acheived as a workforce is to hand 95% of the benefits to the 1%, with a little extra to the managing class, who micromanage every little aspect of worklife using the magnificent anayzing capabilities of computers to make sure every nanosecond of the workday is more productive, and the managing class can always show us peons that we are not working hard enough, according to their infallible computer generated projections.

[trailerguy]

09:52 AM on 05/06/2012

Labor forces are shrinking worldwide, Europe Japan even south korea. Low ferttliy rates are catching up with us. China will start to see a lower labor force in the next few years. You think that it would increase wages.

[Bobisyouruncle]

10:35 AM on 05/06/2012

Much of the cause of low fertility rates is the contamination of the food and water supply with food additives, pesticides, hormones, etc. These things allowed us to meet the demand of a ever growing populations but ultimately will be the cause of our ever shrinking birth rate but hopefully not the demise of our species.

[shp]

10:40 AM on 05/06/2012

Yes, China's one-child policy and the use of abortions as a means of birth control probably has nothing to do with it.

[trailerguy]

12:40 PM on 05/06/2012

not worried about humans vanishing, eventually the ferttliy rate will rebound, but many countries are overpopulated. A reducationof populationin industrilazed countries like Europoe and Japan willl have moer of an effect thana soem of the third world countires who don't use as much resources.

[maconmo]

09:42 AM on 05/06/2012

The Reaganites are generally blamed for beginning wage stagnation and shifting jobs overseas. The start was actually a few years earlier with the death of the steel industry in this country. Clinton only exacerbated the problem with the passing of NAFTA and GATT. Repealing banking regulations. GWB lowering taxes and starting two unfunded wars. All of these actions have only benefitted the wealthy in the world. General populations all over the world continue to experience a lowering in their standard of living, the US included. People will argue "look at China", but cracks are beginning to show, and we only see a limited view of what is going on there. Both parties are guilty, and we will need reform minded individuals from both parties dedicated to raising the standard of living for the 99%.

[jel3800]

01:21 PM on 05/06/2012

I would say the exportation of jobs started even earlier with the post WW2 rebuilding of Europe and Japan/Asia. It started with a lot of light manufacturing but steadily grew to encompass steel as you point out, and also automobiles. Labor costs make up too big a piece of manufacturing costs to be offset by transportation costs of imports. This is resultinng in a leveling of standard of living across all nations, which we see as a reduction. Like it or not we are in a global enconomy

[fortressfountain]

09:20 AM on 05/06/2012

This is a joke right? Low wage low hour jobs will lead to growth? The best thing that could happen is deflation. Just who exactly is buying and willing to go into debt? The older people are physically and mentally unable to start over . College grads have loans to pay. Soon they will sign up for disability as they cannot afford to work these jobs. No recovery you can thank the banks and corporations

[JoeBoy254]

09:00 AM on 05/06/2012

The figure 7% is probably the new full economy in the US. The Bush years had an economy that was all built on smoke and mirrors. We had some good warning signs of this, but not too many people heeded those warnings. If people believe that if we elect a Republican President in 2012 we will all return to prosperity, the Republican propaganda machine has done their work well. It will never happen. We need action in government in the US and we need to reign in and control big business and provide all the tools to regrow our economy with a different base or we are all doomed to live in a third world country. Obama has more than 85% of the good ideas, but he does not have the necessary backing to implement them. There is where the rub lies. So even if we reelect Obama for a second term and he does not get bipartisian support, we will anguish another 4 years with an obstructionist governemnt in place as our country spirals down the toilet. People on this blog have told me to move.and that I am anti American. Little do they know, I will probably do it. My family has been in the US since before there was a USA and we cannot take much more of the BS going on around us. My brother has left the country and my sister and I are not too far behind.

[megwright]

09:28 AM on 05/06/2012

I understand where you're coming from. If not for family responsibilities here, I'd expatriate myself. I'm afraid by the time I'm relieved of those responsibilities I may be too old to move. My two older grandchildren plan to spend their adult lives outside the US. The older one is on her second country already and loves it. She has had far more opportunities there than she'd have here, even as a National Merit scholar. The younger one plans to follow suit after graduation, and my daughter wants to move to Canada after the younger one graduates.

[rchristene]

01:01 PM on 05/06/2012

My uncle is 63 and he and his wife have told our family that they are planning to buy a house in another country when her mom dies. He is retired from the Navy and has lived in many other countries. At first I was sad that they were going away. Now I see that it may be a good step to take.

[OGigi]

08:57 AM on 05/06/2012

And to know that this is right on target for those who had plans to bring us to this point.
These plans went into place easily in the mid 60's.
US wages peaked in the 70's.

[fisch123]

06:06 PM on 05/06/2012

Just before trickle down economics were started, along with tax cuts the rich. I wonder if there is any link between them.

[ncconcernedcitizen]

08:53 AM on 05/06/2012

Don't worry about a shrinking work force. Once we gut SS and Medicare, people won't be retiring.