tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post2361619144179471509..comments2024-01-17T00:45:37.075-08:00Comments on Bud Meyers: Older Workers, Retirees, Disabled, Boomers and the Declining Labor ForceBud Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-38372895076839382172014-11-25T06:32:43.489-08:002014-11-25T06:32:43.489-08:00Robert Reich (November 2014)
"People with c...Robert Reich (November 2014) <br /><br />"People with college degrees continue to earn far more than people without them. And that college “premium” keeps rising. Last year, Americans with four-year college degrees earned on average 98 percent more per hour than people without college degrees. In the early 1980s, graduates earned 64 percent more [but] a college degree no longer guarantees a good job. The main reason it pays better than the job of someone without a degree is the latter’s wages are dropping. In fact, it’s likely that new college graduates will spend some years in jobs for which they’re overqualified. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 46 percent of recent college graduates are now working in jobs that don’t require college degrees. Employers still choose college grads over non-college grads on the assumption that more education is better than less. As a result, non-grads are being pushed into ever more menial work, if they can get work at all. For years we’ve been told globalization and technological advances increase the demand for well-educated workers. This was correct until around 2000. But since then two things have reversed the trend. First, millions of people in developing nations are now far better educated, and the Internet has given them an easy way to sell their skills in advanced economies like the United States. Hence, more and more complex work is being outsourced to them. Second, advanced software is taking over many tasks that had been done by well-educated professionals. As a result, the demand for well-educated workers in the United States seems to have peaked around 2000 and fallen since. But the supply of well-educated workers has continued to grow. The New York Times calls them "Generation Limbo" --- well-educated young adults “whose careers are stuck in neutral, coping with dead-end jobs and listless prospects.” A record number are living at home. Given all this, a college degree is worth the cost because it at least enables a young person to tread water. Without the degree, young people can easily drown." (MY NOTE: I guess that at this rate, one day they'll need a PhD to mops floors.)<br /><br />http://robertreich.org/post/103472733520<br /><br />Timothy Taylor (November 2014) <br /><br />"The age group with by far the biggest rise in those saying they don't want a job since 2000 is the 16-24 age group ... We are in the midst of a social change in which 16-24 year-olds are less likely to want jobs. Some of this is related to more students going on to higher education, as well as to a pattern where fewer high school and college student are looking for work. I do worry about this trend. For many folks of my generation, some evenings and summers spent in low-paid service jobs was part of our acculturation to the world of work. As I've noted in the past, I would also favor a more active program of apprenticeships to help young people become connected to the world of work.<br /><br />http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2014/11/underutilized-labor-in-us-economy.html<br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-2474993148413689932014-11-15T11:55:36.056-08:002014-11-15T11:55:36.056-08:00UPDATE November 2014..............
Zerohedge:
&...UPDATE November 2014..............<br /><br />Zerohedge: <br /><br />"Contrary to the pervasive and erroneous propaganda, the collapse in the labor force has little to do with the alleged millions of retiring baby boomers (quite the contrary: as a result of ZIRP crushing their lifetime savings, baby boomers have been forced to remain in the workforce in ever greater numbers) and everything to do with the lack of employment opportunities, or perhaps an unwillingness to work, for young Americans."<br /><br />http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-15/real-reason-americas-collapsing-labor-force<br /><br />(Zerohedge links to Pew Research below)<br /><br />More and more Americans are outside the labor force entirely. Who are they?<br /><br />http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/11/14/more-and-more-americans-are-outside-the-labor-force-entirely-who-are-they/<br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.com