|
Name:
|
au67
-
|
Subject:
|
And this from WP
|
Date:
|
9/14/2015 2:37:39 PM
|
|
So why does the size of the labor force matter? For one, if people are leaving the labor force for economic reasons (and they're not going back to school), it would mean the economy is in much worse shape than the official unemployment rate suggests.
The size of the labor force also goes a long ways to determining America's growth prospects. If, say, Baby Boomers are retiring faster than expected, then long-run U.S. economic growth will be lower than projected.
Even worse, if discouraged workers are dropping out of the labor force entirely, they may never make their way back into jobs — they may become unemployable. That's a massive human tragedy. It could also mean the U.S. economy will be significantly weaker in future.
And this:
To put this in perspective: If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.8 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/06/the-incredible-shrinking-labor-force-again/
|