Leaving in droves
February 24, 2010
By Kathryn Edwards and Heidi Shierholz
Since the recession started in December 2007, the labor force -- people who are either working or seeking work -- has declined by 700,000 workers, even though the working-age population has increased by 3.7 million. The shrinking labor force is largely a reflection of discouragement with the labor market; as jobs have become scarce, many job seekers have given up looking for work. That said, the decline in the labor force has not been spread equally across the population. The figure shows the percentage point change in the labor force participation rate by age.
The labor force participation rate for workers age 16-24 has decreased from 59.1% to 54.7% in the 25 months since the recession started, representing a loss of 1.3 million young workers, while the labor force participation rate of workers age 55 and older increased from 38.9% to 39.9%, representing an increase of 2.3 million workers....
epi.org
EPI than goes on to recommend a temporary reduction in the retirement age to encourage some of these older workers to retire, to try to increase the employment of younger workers. I disagree with them (but link to them because I'm getting the date from them, even if the original source is the BLS).
I think it shows that congress should roll back the last minimum wage increase, which would keep some of the marginal workers from being priced out of entry level jobs.
Encouraging early retirement is the wrong way to go.
There isn't a set number of jobs, where getting rid of one worker will create an opportunity for someone else.
If you push older workers out, short term your losing workers with years of experience, and probably reducing the output of the private sector. Long term your contributing to the problem from entitlements. We need to raise the retirement age not lower it. |
