go to love the way they try and spin the bad news:
“The labor-force participation rate remains at its lowest level since October 1977, a 38-year low. That rate fell to 62.6 percent from the prior month, according to the report released Friday.
The participation rate still hovers at a nearly 40-year low because improvements in the labor market are being offset by the structural headwinds of demographic change: Baby boomers are retiring and young professionals are going back to school.”
i need help on this but are retirees counted in the labor market??
If you are working or if you are filing for unemployment benefits then you are in the “ labor market” at least for this phony figure
If you are retired, on welfare, stopped looking for job, stopped filing unemployment or ran out of unemployment benefits- then you are not unemployed
The latter being why the unemployment rate keeps “dropping”
The day everyone stops looking for work and stops filing for unemployment , we will reach 0% unemployed!
The point that is important is that each of these developments is inflated by necessity, not choice. Many boomers are taking retirement because they were laid off permanently and cannot find jobs. Many "young professionals" (whatever that includes) are going back to school to get skills needed to find another job. Neither of these is a neutral "demographic" development as the article tries to imply.