Prime-age workers are flooding back into the workforce. Older workers are staying home

[progree]

Adriana Belmonte·Senior Distribution Editor, Yahoo Finance, 5/12/23

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prime-age-workers-are-flooding-back-into-the-workforce-older-workers-are-staying-home-131339316.html

LFPR = Labor Force Participation rates

The graphs are fascinating so I'm listing them. What is below the "GRAPH" line in each case is Progree's impression of what's most interesting about the graph.

Always remember that for plain ol' LFPR, that is age 16 to infinity, yes including centenarians, and are affected by the general aging of the workforce, the rapidly increasing average age of the senior component of the population, and of course boomer retirements. The age 55+ is also increasingly average older age too.

GRAPH: LFPR of 25-54 years old aka Prime Age, and age 55+ (1/2018 onward) .
Age 25-54 is at 83.3%, equal to the pre-pandemic high of January 2020 and the highest rate since September 2008

GRAPH: Job Openings and Hires. (9/2016 onward)
Job openings have fallen to lowest since April '21. But this is still way up from what preceded April 2021

GRAPH: LFPR of: Hispanics/Latinos, Blacks, Whites (1/2019 onward).
Hispanics/Latinos are about 5 percentage points higher than whites, Blacks about 2 percentage points higher than whites in a recent upsurge. Remember the labor force participation rate is the percentage of the age 16+ population (in this graph) that is employed or is actively seeking work (more than just looking at job listings is required to be included in this). Something to keep in mind when some redneck says "them uhh multicultural types are lazy and don't want to work nowadays".

GRAPH: LFPR (1/1971 onward)

Also included is a lot of blah blah about the factors that may be depressing older people's LFPR and holding some back of all ages (compared to say the peak decades ago - the prime age peak was around 2000). I won't attempt to summarize all that or excerpt-icize all that.

Here's a dump of many LFPR data series

The LFPR is the Employed + jobless people who have looked for work in the last 4 weeks (and say they want a job and are able to take one if offered. Looking for work involves more than just looking at job listings). All divided by the civilian non-institutional population age 16+ (in the case of the regular LFPR, or divided by the civilian non-institutional population of whatever age, gender, race etc. for the various sub-demographic measures. For example. the LFPR of age 25-54 females is the number of those employed or actively seeking work divided by the civilian non-institutional population of age 25-54 females.)

SA means Seasonally adjusted. NSA means Not Seasonally Adjusted

LFPR - Labor Force Participation Rate for some age groups
16+: SA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000 NSA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300000
16-24: SA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11324887 NSA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01324887
25-34: SA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300089 NSA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300089
25-54: SA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300060 NSA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300060
55-64: -------------------- NSA: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300095
55+: SA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11324230 NSA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01324230
65+: SA: ---------------- NSA: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300097

[] Labor Force Participation Rate (prime age 25-54) by gender
All: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300060
Men: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300061
Women: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300062

[] Labor Force Participation Rate (age 16+) by gender
ALL: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Men: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300001
Women: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300002

[] Labor Force Participation Rates, Blacks, Whites,

Black LFPR: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300006
White LFPR: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300003

LFPR age 25-54: LNS11300060 & LNU01300060 There are no SA timeseries available for black and white
Blacks: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300066 (no SA),
Whites: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU01300063 (no SA),

[Shermann]

1. I guess Judge Judy gets boring after a while.

She's pretty entertaining though. Tough but fair.

Back to work!

[TheRealNorth]

2. Bookmarking this

I just had to listen to my boomer Mom and Uncle whine about how young adults are not working and that is why there is a shortage of workers for restaurants and other low-paying jobs.

[Warpy]

3. Are older workers "staying home" or is it fairer to say

that they can't get hired?

It's a fair question. The corporate expiration age has fallen steadily from 55 in the 70s to 45 by the 00s It's a rough world out there for people with too many birthdays behind them.

[progree]

4. Dunno if its any worse recently than say 5 years or 10 years ago for older workers

All's I'm reading lately is how some business owners are comparing the Gen Z and millenial work ethic unfavorably compared to boomers.

The article talks about older workers having more fears of Covid and having more options overall, on average.

[Warpy]

5. They want young, attractive workers

who have the experience and work ethic of people 30 years older, people they won't hire.

Yeah, got it. They'd rather piss and moan that kids aren't all that reliable. They have to learn to be reliable. We did.

[progree]

6. I don't disagree at all that it's harder for an older worker to get a job

The article was mostly talking about recent trends -- the first 3 of the 4 graphs began 2018, 2016, and 2019 -- and about the effects of the pandemic.

I remember there were a ton of articles back in the Obama era (when all the media did was talk about the "historically slow" recovery and the tough job market) about how the labor force participation rate of older people was way above historic norms, while that of younger workers was lagging their historic averages.

Now the articles I've seen pandemic and post-pandemic is about how the opposite is happening, and why. I don't see any evidence that hire-ability has gotten worse for older workers relative to younger workers than they were in the Obama and Slobfather eras. Actually the opposite (still a lot harder for older workers but not as bad lately), but that might just be a media meme and just anecdotal.

I don't remember there being as much slamming of the work ethic and productivity of younger generations back a decade or two before. Rather, back then, it was all about the younger people being Internet- and computer- savvy, while the older generations were in the "how do I create a file and why would I want to do that?" stage.

Now it's all about how the younger generations are on their phones and social media all the time.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Younger workers have the apps, analytics, speed but are in it for themselves

Older workers have experience, judgment, computer skills, dedication but don't interview well at breakneck speed. The young interviewers are devious shallow fvcks. There is much wrong with the world of work.