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marmar

(77,080 posts) Thu Jul 2, 2015, 12:47 PM Jul 2015

This is Why Participation in the U.S. Workforce Has Plunged to Its Lowest Since 1977

(Bloomberg) The size of the labor force tanked last month, helping to make for a very mixed June jobs report.

Though payrolls climbed at a healthy clip, some 432,000 people left the workforce, Labor Department data showed. That sent the participation rate — which tracks the share of working-age people who are either employed or looking for work — to 62.6 percent, the lowest level since October 1977. While the rate has been trending down ever since baby boomers started retiring in droves, the decrease last month was the sharpest in more than a year.

The decline was made all the more surprising by the fact that June tends to be a month where the U.S. sees loads of people moving into the labor force — think teenagers snagging lifeguard gigs, recent college graduates scouring the internet for job postings and teachers taking up summer work. That "just did not happen," said Karen Kosanovich, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington.

In the last decade, an average 1.35 million workers have entered the labor force every June on a not seasonally adjusted basis. This year, the gain was 564,000. That translates into a decline for the seasonally adjusted data, since the monthly increase was much less than it usually is. ................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-02/this-is-why-participation-in-the-american-workforce-has-plunged-to-its-lowest-since-1977

13 replies

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This is Why Participation in the U.S. Workforce Has Plunged to Its Lowest Since 1977 (Original Post) marmar Jul 2015 OP

we must be retiring in luxury to our seaside villas...... virtualobserver Jul 2015 #1

What is why? HassleCat Jul 2015 #2

That was my question too. nt B2G Jul 2015 #4

+1. Maybe bunny-with-pancake-on-its-head gif accompanied closeupready Jul 2015 #5

They cannot tell us that, more data doncha'know Rex Jul 2015 #10

Glad someone is finally speaking the truth to the rah-rah jobs people. nt daredtowork Jul 2015 #3

Like how Obamacare is allowing folks to retire and leave the labor force, truth like that? Fred Sanders Jul 2015 #6

Except there are significant declines in lower age groups. B2G Jul 2015 #8

Young folk going to school are not in the labor force, it is another good thing...Obamacare helps Fred Sanders Jul 2015 #11

Wake up Fred! econoclast Jul 2015 #12

5.3%.....I rest my case...doom and gloom folks are everywhere at every job reports...I prefer the Fred Sanders Jul 2015 #13

Not really econoclast Jul 2015 #7

Reaganomics, continued by Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama Doctor_J Jul 2015 #9

virtualobserver

(8,760 posts)

1. we must be retiring in luxury to our seaside villas......

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 12:54 PM

Jul 2015

what other explanation could there be?

HassleCat

(6,409 posts)

2. What is why?

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 12:55 PM

Jul 2015

"When there's no one clear cause as to what's responsible for labor force fluctuations, it's better to wait for more data before making a call, BLS's Kosanovich said." (from the linked article) There is no clear indication as to why this is happening.

B2G

(9,766 posts)

4. That was my question too. nt

Reply to HassleCat (Reply #2)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 01:57 PM

Jul 2015

closeupready

(29,503 posts)

5. +1. Maybe bunny-with-pancake-on-its-head gif accompanied

Reply to HassleCat (Reply #2)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 02:01 PM

Jul 2015

the article...? And we here on DU aren't seeing it...?

Rex

(65,616 posts)

10. They cannot tell us that, more data doncha'know

Reply to HassleCat (Reply #2)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 03:35 PM

Jul 2015

Their paychecks depend on a rosy outcome.

daredtowork

(3,732 posts)

3. Glad someone is finally speaking the truth to the rah-rah jobs people. nt

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 01:56 PM

Jul 2015

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)

6. Like how Obamacare is allowing folks to retire and leave the labor force, truth like that?

Reply to daredtowork (Reply #3)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 02:22 PM

Jul 2015

5.3%. Rah, rah, indeed!

B2G

(9,766 posts)

8. Except there are significant declines in lower age groups.

Reply to Fred Sanders (Reply #6)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 03:13 PM

Jul 2015

This is not a good thing.

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)

11. Young folk going to school are not in the labor force, it is another good thing...Obamacare helps

Reply to B2G (Reply #8)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 03:37 PM

Jul 2015

with that also, not to mention better student loan terms.

Things are more complicated than the corporate news headlines.....my headline is still...5.3%!

Remember when the economy was a black cloud about to burst, but came with a silver lining? Now it is a white cloud with a black lining. It is much, much better.

In Obama I trust, to Obama I credit.

econoclast

(543 posts)

12. Wake up Fred!

Reply to Fred Sanders (Reply #11)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 04:13 PM

Jul 2015

The actual, NOT seasonally adjusted, numbers for the 25-34 year old tranche of the labor force DECLINED by 182,000 in June. The 35-44 year old tranche DECLINED by 133,000 in actual, NOT seasonally adjusted numbers, in June.

These are NOT young people who decided to go to graduate school, Fred. And they haven't retired.

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)

13. 5.3%.....I rest my case...doom and gloom folks are everywhere at every job reports...I prefer the

Reply to econoclast (Reply #12)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 04:48 PM

Jul 2015

Long term trend and the consistent long term measurements are the best indicators, always.

Gloom and doom is for cons, the fully recovered economy from the depths of near ruination (for those that remember) is a good thing, a very good thing...cling to your minor quibbles, everyone hears the same Chicken Little scratchings every report...boring.

Obama has been a champion of young people and getting them an affordable education, good health care, new overtime regulations,...amnesia is not a strength of mine and do not make perfection an enemy of the good.

econoclast

(543 posts)

7. Not really

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 02:59 PM

Jul 2015

For instance, even though the actual, NOT seasonally adjusted, numbers for the 25-34 year old tranche of the labor force DECLINES by 182,000 like it did in June and when the 35-44 year old tranche DECLINES by 133,000 in actual, NOT seasonally adjusted numbers, like it just did ... There is no cause for worry?

Yeah.

Doctor_J

(36,392 posts)

9. Reaganomics, continued by Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 03:29 PM

Jul 2015

Maybe I'll go to the BOG and read how everything is wonderful. Reality is too tough to deal with

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