This is an exploration of the causes of so many Americans in the prime working years not working. The causes are varied and complex. From Jeffry Bartash at marketwatch.com:
Luke Sharett/Bloomberg The sizzling U.S. labor market has knocked the unemployment rate down to a 17-year low, but millions of Americans in their prime who would have been working back then do not have jobs now.
How come? China, robots, disability benefits, minimum wages and jail-time are the biggest culprits, according to a pair of researchers at the University of Maryland.
The percentage of the U.S. population with jobs sank from a record 64.7% in 2000 to a 28-year low of 58.2% by 2011 before beginning a gradual recovery. The brunt of the decline occurred during the 2007-2009 recession, but the problem had been long in the making.
“These worrisome developments were exacerbated by the Great Recession, but their roots preceded its onset,” wrote economists Katharine Abraham and Melissa Kearney at the University of Maryland in a new report. Abraham is a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The problem is still acute among young people and even Americans in their prime working years of 25 to 54, especially men.
Surprisingly it’s not the case for older people nearing retirement age. The share of those ages 55 to 64 actually rose until just very recently.
If men and women from the ages 25 to 54 took part in the labor market at the same rates as they did in 1999, another 3.5 million Americans could either be at work today or looking for jobs. That would be more fuel for the U.S. economy and a bigger source of workers for businesses crying out about a shortage of labor.
