Working-age people with jobs on decline (17 Year Low)

[cthrumatrix]

Working-age people with jobs on decline

By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer | February 24, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The share of the working-age population working or actively seeking a job -- known as the participation rate -- fell to 65.8 percent in January, the lowest reading in 17 years, according to numbers collected by the Labor Department.

snip

Economists offer a variety of factors behind the decline: a loss of factory jobs, where some are unqualified to snag other jobs; people getting out of the 9-to-5 grind to go back to school; people deciding to be a stay-at-home mom or dad; and people abandoning job searches because they can't find a job at a pay level they want.

The participation rate hit an all-time high of 67.3 percent in early 2000 -- when the economy was still roaring and employers had a hardy appetite to hire workers. After that, the rate slowly drifted downward as the economy suffered through the 2001 recession and then struggled to recover.

snip

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/24/working_age_people_with_jobs_on_decline/

[Straight Shooter]

1. People are also more willing to accept "under the table" wages

IOW, employer pays employee without reporting the wages, so that the employer doesn't have to pay tax or provide any benefits. Obviously this is under the radar and so they aren't included in statistics of nationwide employment.

It's a nice solution for the employee in the meantime because he/she doesn't have to pay taxes, either, but the downside is that it hurts them in the long run for Social Security benefits. I'm of course assuming that bush doesn't find a way to destroy SS.

I have found that people who accept under the table wages are usually pretty hard up for a job. They accept lower wages in return for not having to report income. It's not an uncommon arrangement in the area where I live. Everyone is just trying to get by, the best they can.

[cthrumatrix]

3. or health care .... it's companies taking advantage of people

the "walmartization of america" in front of our eyes

[Deja Q]

12. And that WILL eventually backfire too.

When people can't afford what they need, much less what they want, by devaluing themselves as such, the economy suffers. Even the wealthy will suffer because their millions or billions become as worthless as dust.

And peoples' blind acceptance of it leaves me apathetic toward them. Life is what we make of it. And we're making our lives get to such a condition where death is preferable. :-(

Unless, when the babyboomers retire enmasse, it'll leave a glut of jobs open for us in which case our economy is saved and the sitting president will get credit for it.

[AP]

16. Who is doing that?

Most companies don't want to lose the tax break they get for paying wages.

What I suspect is more common is companies hiring independent consultants, and there's not getting around reporting that income.

[EVDebs]

2. Bush & Co. have relied upon immigration to keep up job growth

"NATION’S IMMIGRANTS ACCOUNT FOR BULK OF LABOR FORCE GROWTH SINCE 2000 WHILE NATIVE-BORN WORKERS EXPERIENCE HEAVY DECLINES"

http://www.nupr.neu.edu/01-04/immigration_jan.html

And I don't believe Bush's administration can account for any net new jobs since they've been in office--above what the population growth rate would require. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[HereSince1628]

4. Amazing, I guess I am just old, greedy and lazy...

If I wasn't I'd surely have a new job in this hot market.

Someone with a gun please come and shoot me. I don't deserve to live.

[mhr]

5. Unemployed 59 Months - Two College Degrees - Can't Find Work

This does not surprise me at all.

[katty]

18. I hear you! not surprised...

many of my friends and associates have degrees and years of professional working experience - can't find work and are willing to take a lower salary. Some have sold their houses, cars (and they were not living a super-cushy lifestyle).
the internet job search is a joke, and recent stats have proved that very few land a job via an internet lead.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

6. It's very interesting to compare...

... the non-participation rate of 34.2% (which is 100% minus the participation rate of 65.8%) with the official unemployment rate of 5% to 6%. This is an enormous discrepancy. There are many explanations, among them the phoniness of the official unemployment rate.

[cthrumatrix]

7. more here.....

U.S. jobless rate misses "hidden" unemployed
By Reuters | June 14, 2004

NEW YORK -- Buried inside the official U.S. employment report each month is a little-known figure that gives a much less rosy picture of the labor market than the headlines.



The government agency that produces the data also publishes an alternative measure that tries to capture the hidden unemployed, those who are not included in the official unemployment rate for various statistical reasons.

That broader measure is dramatically higher, at 9.7 percent in May, compared with the official level of 5.6 percent.

That's an extra 5.96 million people, in addition to the 8.2 million "officially" unemployed, who are waiting on the sidelines and may at some point step back into the labor force.

Although it receives little notice, the adjusted jobless rate has important implications for Federal Reserve policy-makers because it suggests the job market will not tighten as quickly as some in the financial markets believe.


snip

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/06/14/us_jobless_rate_misses_hidden_unemployed/

[pandorasox]

13. This does include stay-at-home parents and spouses

Which rather obscures the question of actual unemployment numbers.

[nannah]

8. how are people who are in prison counted?

are they counted as part of the "potential employment pool" from which "participation rates" are calculated? or are they taken out of the number of available or "potential employment pool?

how many people of employment age are in prison? how are they counted in this study?

It may make a difference. people in prison are not counted as unemployed in unemployment statistic? a friend used to speculate on what the percentage of unemployment would be if we added people in prison into the unemployment statistics.

Basically, employment statistics that show percentage of employed people and numbers of jobs lost and gained would be helpful in understanding the reality of getting and keeping jobs here in the USA.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

10. With 2 million people behind bars...

..., amongst all this "freedom and democracy", I agree, it would make a big difference as to how they are counted.

[eridani]

25. Not only that, but guards and other personnel--

--paid to watch over non-violent drug criminals may be paid now, but they'd also be unemployed if the War On Some Drugs ever ended.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. My lord they actually gave us data to go into the Misery Index

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lemme see... official unemployment 5.6

Participation rate 65.8

Lower wages to be expected by what 20%

Increase of people without medical insurance.....

Not good...

If these numbers are correct we are aproaching 60% nationawide, and as some of you point out higher in local areas.

Keep watching these numbers...

[Vincardog]

11. Here is the reason and answer to the fake SS Crisis.

Get more people jobs that pay a decent wage. Poof no 'Crisis'!

[TahitiNut]

19. Yep.

And raise the Federal Minimum Wage. :thumbsup:

[HockeyMom]

14. not just Mcjobs now, but, PART TIME McJobs

Out of work and looking for full time. Everything from retail clerks to accountants around here are all going PART TIME. Just like that woman with the THREE part time jobs that Bush laughed at, these are the new wave of the future jobs. They pay two or three people less money part time and of course, NO BENEFITS at all.

[MountainLaurel]

17. Not just McJobs

This is happening at the professional level as well. Think of how at some colleges 75 percent of classes are taught by adjuncts, who are making perhaps $1500 per class, with no benefits and no ties to the university. I just finished my master's in information science (the new term for library stuff), and here in the DC area both the public systems and universities are hiring multiple part-timers rather than one or two full time positions.

[AP]

15. The involuntary single-wage earner family. That is NOT good for democracy.

You have one family member getting kicked around by their employer, accepting smaller raises (if any) and shrinking benefits because his or her family can't survive without that income, and you have the other family member acting as an unpaid domestic servant because he or she can't find a job that is worth more than the very little value that person brings to the household.

All this means less wealth and power building up in the middle class, and more wealth and power building up in corporations which see an increased profit margin from lower labor costs and more desperation in the job market.

And so long as people are willing to go into debt, the corporations don't have to worry about consumption decreasing. And if they sell things to the government, they really don't have to worry about consumption dropping off because the government is on a credit binge worse than your average American family.

[TahitiNut]

20. And that's why the Bush Regime is moving rapidly ....

... to prevent these victims from declaring bankruptcy and being relieved of credit card debt or health care debt. It's an all-out war on the working class.

[Megahurtz]

21. Thanks to the push for corporate greed

in this country, we live in such a "competion enforced" society that all the employers would rather hire the young, new up-and-comers with a clean slate. There is no more regard for employee rights.
And other jobs are sent overseas, and most of the lower paying jobs are taken by over the border immigrants. Those people not quite nearing retirement yet are really screwed :hurts: especially if Bushitler gets his way with Social Security.

Just beautiful, isn't it?;(

[Robert Oak]

22. shesh

that's heavy and I don't care what kind of excuses they give..
I'll bet they just can't find a job that can pay the rent.

[daleo]

23. That's about 3 million job holders or so

67.3-65.8=1.5%
1.5% times about 200 million = about 3 million.

Imagine if these people were still being counted in the workforce. Bush's unemployment rate would look much worse. I suppose it is better to just ignore their existence, by defining them out of the labor force for the sake of chimpenomics.

[struggle4progress]

24. kick