Ken Berwitz
The decrease in laborforce participation among prime-age individuals has been driven mostly by the share who say they currently don\’twant a job. As ofDecember 2014, prime-age labor force participation was 2.4 percentage pointsbelow its prerecession average. Of that, 0.5 percentage point is accounted forby a higher share who indicate they currently want a job; 2 percentage pointscan be attributed to a higher share who say they currently don\’t want a job: (from an analysis provided by the Atlanta Fed)
And there you have it: there are nearly 100 millionworking-age Americans who could be in the labor force, but are not “mostly” because they don\’t want a job.
Nothing about the lack of job demand as mega corporationscontinue to lay workers off in droves insteadof hiring, instead using every last dollar of free cash flow tobuyback their own stock to boost executive compensation instead of growingtheir company and hire more workers.
Nothing aboutthe collapse in small business formation – that driver of 80% of US employment -as firm exit rates are now greater than firm entry rates
Nothing aboutthe inability to get a job in a world in which the rest of
the global is lapping the US in educational and labor skills.
Nothing aboutthe US economy never having left the post-2008 depression where $4.5 trillionin Fed credit was created just to boost the S&P to all time highs and nevermaking it to the actual economy (until the helicopters finally startparadropping of course)
Nothing aboutmillions of aging, 55 and over, Americans refusing to retire or quit their jobsimply because they have no return on their savings to fall back on thank tothe Fed\’s ZIRP, thus keeping the labor pipeline clogged and preventing youngerAmericans from getting promoted and achieving better paying jobs.
Nothing abouta Millennial generation encumbered with $1 trillion in debt, that is soterrified of its job prospects and having to pay down its debt, it chooseinstead to keep rolling and piling on to this debt by remaining in collegeindefinitely
Nothing aboutthe perverted incentive structure of a welfare state that makes it moreattractive to collect generous governmenthandouts which end up punishing hard work.
None of that.
