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Why Do So Many Working Age Americans Choose Not To Enter The Workforce?
Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,
Today we look at a unique dataset – Gallup’s annual poll of job satisfaction – to see what it can tell us about secular trends in employment, consumer confidence and spending. This annual survey of +1,000 people active in the U.S. workforce goes back to the late 1980s, so it is a useful lens with which to consider issues like labor force participation rates that have shifted unexpectedly over the period.
Most surprising news first: Americans express a broad satisfaction with their jobs, regardless of economic conditions. The very worst reading since 1989 was in 2011 when “Only” 83% of respondents said they were either “Somewhat” or “completely” satisfied with their jobs. The peak was in 2007 at 94%, and last year (August 2014) it was 89%.
The key takeaway is that declining labor force participation rates since the year 2000 (67% then, 62.6% now) aren’t because of any systemic disaffection with the American workplace.
The other notable takeaway: workers are (strangely, we must say) satisfied with what they earn. Those expressing “Complete” satisfaction with their paystub hit a high last year (31%) not seen since 2010 and 2006… Wage inflation? What for?
You could call it the “Mystery of the Missing Worker” – why do so many people of working age chose not to enter the workforce? Here are the numbers, as of the most recent Employment Situation report:
- 250 million: the total number of people of working age in the United States.
- 149 million: the total number of people in that population that have a job.
- 8 million: the number of people who want a job but do not have one.
- 93 million: the number of people who don’t work, and don’t want work.
To put some context around that last number, it is 30% of the entire U.S. population. This is the same as the current population of the entire West Coast (CA, OR, and WA) AND New York State AND Florida. Plus another 10 million people. Economists measure this with the Labor Force Participation rate, and it has been in decline since February 2000, when it peaked at 67.3%. It is now 62.6% and last month was a new low back to the 1970s. People of working age increasingly do not consider themselves part of the labor force. Most economists chalk this up to the demographics of an aging workforce even though virtually all the literature on the topic in the early 2000 predicted participation would continue to increase.
We recently took a long look at a dataset that doesn’t often see the light of day but does provide some useful takes on how workers view their jobs. It comes from the Gallup organization and is an annual survey of +1,000 employees since 1989 on their perceptions of job satisfaction in all its forms, from health and safety concerns to compensation to job security. The complete data set can be found here, and the charts below highight the trends...
But here are the important takeaways.
#1: Americans are consistently satisfied with their jobs, although the readings vary slightly through a given economic cycle. The highest ever combined responses of “Completely Satisfied” and “Satisfied” was in 2007 at 94%. The worst since the start of the survey in the late 1980s was 2011, at 82%. Last year – the results come out every August – the combined reading was 58% “Completely” and 31% “Somewhat” Satisfied, for a total of 89%.
#2: They also feel relatively secure in their positions. Last year some 88% reported being “Completely” (58%) or “Somewhat” (31%) satisfied by the security offered by their jobs and, implicitly, their employers. The worst readings were in 2009 at 80% total and in the early 1990s at 79%.
#3: Workers also report high levels of satisfaction with what they receive in terms of compensation. Back in 1991 – the worst year in terms of general reported satisfaction for this question – “only” 66% of respondents were completely or somewhat satisfied with their pay stubs. Even during the Financial Crisis and its aftermath that number troughed at 70% in 2011. Last year a total of 75% of respondents were satisfied with what they received for compensation.
#4: Workers who respond to the Gallup survey last year have the biggest gripes about health insurance benefits (only 61% satisfied), retirement planning (only 63% satisfied) and chances for promotion (68%).
#5: Conversely, workers reported exceptionally high levels of satisfaction in their relations with co-workers (95% completely or somewhat satisfied), physical safety (93%) and the flexibility of their hours (90%).
Frankly, when we started to look at these numbers we expected to see a mirror of the volatility common in consumer confidence surveys. A few points here:
- Consumer confidence as measured by the Conference Board peaked in 1966/67 and again in the late 1990s at readings of +140.
- Troughs occurred in the early 1970s, late 1970s/early 1980s and post September 11 at readings of 50 or so.
- The Financial Crisis took us down to below 30 in 2008 and readings struggled to get past 70 until 2013.
We therefore thought that Americans would feel broadly the same about their work situations as they did the economy as a whole - that things are still pretty bad and the past was much better than the present. This turned out not to be the case. Yes, they express some marginal disaffection when times are hard, but the trough reading during and after the Financial Crisis was 83% satisfied with their jobs. Hardly a pitchforks and barricades kind of number.
In short, we can’t blame lower participation rates on the nature of work – broadly speaking – offered in the American economy. In Internet parlance, the American workplace gets 4 ½ stars and a lot of recommendations. Perhaps, in the words of Yogi Berra: “No one goes to that restaurant any more. It’s too crowded”.
* * *
Of course, when work is punished in the Entitlement State Americans live in... what else should we expect but 30% of the employable to sit at home? As we previously explained,
This isthe painful reality in America: for increasingly more it is now more lucrative - in the form of actual disposable income - to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work.
This is graphically, and very painfully confirmed, in the below chart from Gary Alexander, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a state best known for its broke capital Harrisburg). As quantitied, and explained by Alexander, "the single mom is better off earnings gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045."
We realize that this is a painful topic in a country in which the issue of welfare benefits, and cutting (or not) the spending side of the fiscal cliff, have become the two most sensitive social topics. Alas, none of that changes the matrix of incentives for most Americans who find themselves in a comparable situation: either being on the left side of minimum US wage, and relying on benefits, or move to the right side at far greater personal investment of work, and energy, and... have the same disposable income at the end of the day.
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In nature the Alpha lounges around all day while the Beta bitches go out to hunt food. Alpha has first dibs on the food. Then he fucks the bitches and goes back to sleep.
If you work in the modern era you are a Beta/bitch. The Alphas in nature NEVER work and never will. The truest Alphas are old money that NEVER do any real work in their lives. People kind of like Obama and the entire Bush family, born and bred into the ruling class that have never cleaned their own toilet or kitchen and couldn't imagine lowering themselves to such menial labor.
Alphas on top and Alphas on bottom. Middle class workers getting doubled teamed/spit roasted in the middle.
Alpha/Beta doesn't apply to humans. There is a more diverse ecology at work.
Said the married man with 1 daughter and a wife that refuses to give him sons.
I've got news for you....bitch.
Because weed.
Just speaking from experience.
Individual results may vary.
No, weed is what .gov gives you to make your hopeless unemployment... trippy.
Oh this is an easy one...Answer. "Because work isn't entertaining enough."
Let me explain how the world works, and I'll try to keep it short and sweet.
So! The day you are born you are showered with toys. In fact even before you're born. The idea is to get your thoughts off the men and women behind the curtain and real problems like nuclear waste, pollution and gmo foods as soon as possible.
They have to get your mind off them as soon as possible and get you to concentrate on those beloved toys.
Now the toy gifting and toy addiction continues into your teens. Then they, the men and women behind the curtain know that the toy trucks and dolls are getting old.
So now they introduce, entertainment. computer games, smart phones, TV movies, carnivals, wild rides, shopping malls, alcohol, drugs, etc. Anything to keep your mind off of the men and women behind the curtain and real problems like nuclear waste, pollution and gmo foods.
Later when you're older and the movie and carnival thing doesn't interest you, here come the real toys. The Adult toys! Now it's time for boats, motorcycles, cars, planes, anything to keep your mind off the men and women behind the curtain and real problems like nuclear waste, pollution and gmo foods.
Then! Before you know it, its over. You spent 80 or so years on the planet thinking about toys, playing with toys and being entertained and you never knew what hit you or the planet.
All you know is that somewhere, someday, something bad is going to happen. What? You dont know. Something to do with nuclear something or other, or pollution, or disease, or something like that.
And that is why nobody these days want to work. For the same reason they dont want to sacrifice. Because it isn't entertaining enough.
For some reason the word "entertrainment" popped into my head, reading your comment. Neat. (I avoid the TV.)
Maybe they are employed but choose to work under the table for cash to effectively make duble what they would if they had a job with a a paycheck.
Never mind single mums, it is also better to have one parent stay at home than both parents working. Better for the parents, family life and children.
If everyone would bite the bullet and walk off the job for a few months things might start to change. A nationwide work stoppage. It's obvious elections don't matter. Only ones left would be local, state and federal employees until they'd be out of a job.
Been saying this off and on for years now SSRI. I'm even leading by example, but the fource, the flouride or whatever is strong.
Btw, nice tits.
The SSRI is the worst shit I have ever been on. And the withdrawl is worse then nicotine ( I quit smoking 8 years ago).
Sounds like 'Idiocracy' to me.
go away, batin
Gen x is pathetic. That simple. 1 in 3 live at home with their parents aND the ones that don't live at home rent.
"Gen x is pathetic. That simple. 1 in 3 live at home with their parents aND the ones that don't live at home rent. "
Gen X here, Eat shit. I rent by choice. I'm just finishing up my little crib. No mortgage.
I'm gen x too but not dumb enough to think that paying rent means "no mortgage". You're paying somebody else's mortgage!
I think you haven't kept up with the name of the 20 something generation. I am Gen X and I'm 45. Moved out of my parents and into my own apartment when I was 19 with a full time job.
Gen Y???
Defining years for living US generations vary some by source, but here is one:
GI Generation: 1901-1926
Silent Generation: 1927-1945
Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Generation X: 1965-1980
Gen Y/Millenials: 1981-2000
Gen Z/Boomlets: 2001 and later
Interesting tidbit; the Boomlets will be bigger than the Baby Boomers and in the peak year (2006) births were 49% Hispanic.
I like Mexican food.
gen x probably started sooner than 1964. anecdotally, i was born around then and had not 1 but two schools (grade school and later, high school) close for lack of enrollment. boomer attendance in schools probably peaked around '70 ish.... then the schools began closing.
Boomlets or Niglets?
LOL, you ass, so take away the jobs, import Mexicans and you say "Gen X is pathetic". The grownups of this nation have sold out its children's future. The 40-80 years olds have supported war after war, FOR WHAT, you allow millions upon millions of illegals to march across our borders, then put them to work watching YOUR kids, taking care of your gardens, and wiping your ass, you create trade deals that destroy opportunity for the young, and then YOU blame them, so typical and so pathetic.
Why? because they've rolled off of Unemployment Insurance and have scammed the system by getting SS "disability".. They're set for life now. Fedgov pays then not to work.
Why work, just take a 2nd mortage on your house, invest it in stawcks, what could go wrong?
Work participation is about where it was when I was a kid. The difference is that first the women were suckered into the work force with promises of betterment for their families... then the life was sucked out of the dollar so that it took two to earn what one use to earn... at the same time the family unit, minus the mom at home, was destroyed, no fault divorce became the in thing along wih infidelity... and the fascist government became the defacto spouse.
I could go on but I am certain that most of you already know the story...
Aaron Russo said the banksters needed "woman's lib" because half the population was not being taxed. All that housekeeping/ making labor was going on tax-free.
No one today complains about their job. They know that, as much as they hate it, it's better than no job. Most employees have been conditioned to believe that they should be grateful to have any job at all. I'm retired and would love to earn som extra money. But, other than greeting at WalMart, there are few opportunities in my field, commercial real estate lending. Most companies want trainable, obedient workers. They're not interested in people who want to advance, unless, of course, they are in with the "in crowd", connected ass kissers or part of the 1%. So, what's left is grunt work. If you're a grumbling grunt, you can easily be replaced by a non-grumbling grunt. So, most people don't grumble. Do your survey one-on-one over a couple of drinks and see what results you get. Rather than put up with indentured servitude, of course people will opt for getting by on the dole. It's better than selling your soul. This selfish, hooray for me, screw you culture will come home to roost very soon. Right now, the government doesn't have to resort to the obvious, blatant act of raising taxes. All they have to do is keep borrowing. Even the opponents of escalating national debt have given up, as it is political suicide to buck the tide. But some day, probably in the not too distant future, this free money myth will end and it will be very ugly.
... meanwhile Government Motors (GM) is investing $1B in India >>> http://thebricspost.com/gm-to-invest-1bn-in-india-to-boost-profits/ ...
Yes, let's put Indians to work and starve Americans, hahahhahaha!
You guys aren't sick of this shit along with a homo president?
Americans will swallow anything. They have No Pride. Gimme moar, Bath House! Slurp! Slurp!
Gosh! We need to vote for Bath House Barry, our first communist gay muslim president!
"Thanks! I'll suck any dick here! Get back to watching the Kardashians!
You are exactly what is wrong with America, you attack Obama, or gays for that matter, just so you can project you homophobia and racism.
America's decline did not START with Obama, nor will it end when he leaves office, the whole Federal government is corrupt you troglodyte.
But I am not surprised by your responses, typical misdirection, you are like a rat in a maze, only stupider.
Hey Lakecity, this 6 week'er fresh from Huffpo is saying YOU are the problem! LOLOLOL
Bight my crank!
I like dealing dope, no taxes, hahahahahha.
Armaments is a second lucrative outlet!
I see what you did there. Fucking brilliant piece of counterfuckery.
Get in a reality show, read the brand called you, be bold and be a kardashian weeeee
Yeah, people are "choosing" to not get 50k/year plus benefits manufacturing jobs. Keep saying and it might be true. The economy is doing great!
Inflation, taxes, fees, regulations.
The government IS THE ENEMY.
About as simple as I can state it.
Just today, I spoke to the secretary of the code enforcement officer in my little, rural town. More BS crap than I wanted to hear about putting up a 10x14 shed on an existing slab that happens to be 30 feet (not 50 feet, per the regs) from my neighbor's property line (their house is 200 yards away; my property is 5.7 acres).
Just started saying, "uh, huh, yes, uh, huh." Finally got off the phone. Decided I'd do whatever the fuck I like and let them sort it out. The code enforcement officer was on vacation. Figure I could grease his plam with a $50 and be done with it. Stifling. Stupid. The death of America. Made me fucking sick.
don't worry even if nobody works the gdp will still go up every year cuz owebomba sed.
yeah, a survey of 1,000 people (.001% of the 94 million unemployed) is 'logically' representative of what is going on in the US with over 300 million. What did they do, call people working in government jobs for all their data?
What a load of crap. People aren't "choosing" not to work, they still have to eat and live. The job market SUCKS alot of people cannot afford to work part time, which is all that is out there for many. Of course people who have a job say they are satisfied because they're the lucky ones with a job! Where do they get the idea that those who aren't receiving unemploiyment benefits "don't want to work"? I was unemployed, without unemployment benefits for years. I desperately wanted a job, but couldnt find anything worth while. Very few jobs pay a liveable wage, with benefits and thats what a person needs to live.
Manufactoring is down to 12% of gdp, down from almost 20% just 15 years ago. What we need are factories, mining operations, farms, etc to produce and export real goods. These are the jobs that offer opportunities to young people so they can save for houses, build wealth and start families. Instead what we have are part time service jobs that nobody can live on, young people look out into the work force with despair. No wonder they're all turning into socialists, they don't see anyway that they can make it in the real world.
Wait, the drone business is booming! We don't manufacture those here?
"FREE TRADE", BABY!
I knew back in the '70's when the Repugnicans started promoting "Free Trade", that there was going to be hell to pay for that insanity. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
In the bright light of ultimate ruination, these federal morons and "trade negotiators" are still pushing it.
Kill all welfare scum. ALL OF THEM.
I handed out Da Welfare for 3 years...nothing but sick, lamed, and crazies. Only 2 people in that whole time really NEEDED help; one couldn't get it...she was making gross income of $1200 a month and that was too much to qualify for the meds she needed. That'll show her for having a job and asking for help!
Kill the boor-o-crats who dole out the welfare too...90% or more were communists.
If you hate poor people so much, maybe you should hate on the Overlords who seem to manufacture so many of them. The blame lies on those with power over the rest of us.
The problem is the minimum wage and gun rights. We must raise the minimum wage to at leat $25/hr and repeal the 2nd amendment. Oh, and we must put more transgnender folks in high places to solve these problems. That is what Obameo is focused on, so that MUST be the solution.
It's the scam of the 'drug test'.
You can be an alcoholic, get a DUI, perhaps injure yourself or someone, show up to work, stinking from the binge from the night before, and that's fine.
You can take your 'hillbilly heroin', by prescription, show up for work half asleep, crash the forklift, and be fine with the 'man'.
But smoke a little marijuana, and you are worthless, scum.
We don't want your 'kind' working here.
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Work sucks.
•?•
V-V
Why Do So Many Working Age Americans Choose Not To Enter The Workforce?
Cuz it's so much easier to just live off the gummint entitlement programs, ie the earnings of the people who do work, stolen by and laundered thru the politicians in return for the votes of the parasites.
why dats rayciss.......
no sir, theres plenty white folk on the dole, not just colored folks !
This country would be in a state of total collapse if it wasn't for the underground economy......That is why the banksters and their demoniac puppets in D.C. want to eliminate cash......So we can't do business with each other without them confiscating the lion's share of the deal.
Hmmmm. The more Washington DC does, the worse things get.
I sense a pattern here.
no, no, no, the problem is always that they aren't doing enough. wait till Hitlery, or, that Sandersboyg, or fauxcohantas get 'elected' - that'll fix thing. They have all sorts of better idears to try out on us rummies.
The greatest thing about Ovomit's Iran nuclear capitulation is that it will soon provide the demons in Iran the means by which they can nuke Washington, D.C.......and free the American People from the greatest threats to our freedoms and economic well-being we have ever faced.
many of the jobs that are posted don't exist...
The zombies gotta come from somewhere.
Why so many people are not in work force or rather slave force?
And where are those 93 millions jobs for those 93 millions people lazy people?
And where are those 93 millions good paychecks that cover cost of living for those 93 millions people?
Some answers are here:
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/slaves-of-wage/
Does the remaining 93m include working aged adults that run their own small enterprises, and do not need to look for employment?
I do not have much knowledge on how labour statistics are collated.
"250 million: the total number of people of working age in the United States."
I think your math is dyslexic. Accrding to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the working age population is about 205 million people.
System fucked too hard too long.
A survey of 1000 workers to form a consensus of 149,000,000 workers? That's the same as forming an opinion of what a million people think by asking 7 people.
A full time worker should NOT get welfare benefits or need them. These benefits are a direct subsidy to employers, allowing them to pay rock bottom wages. This is the best argument for higher minimum wages.
Also, no wonder mexicans are flooding up here, the word is out. You can work full time (and not file taxes), AND get a full plate of benefits: SNAP, medicaid, etc etc.
Exactly right. The answer to stupidity is moar stupid. Freaking brilliant.
Wages have been pushed so low and living costs are so high that this indeed creates a Welfare Cliff. If you work you have more expenses. You need a car with extra insurance and gasoline costs.
Problem is that you can't lower welfare because daily living costs are that high and you can't higher salaries because than the businesses would go bankrupt so what do you do?
The personal car will be phased out as the corporate owned fleet comes in to largely take over driving and taxis. We may see full efficiency of automobile design at that point if government stays out of it...
"what do you do?"
Wait for the collapse.
"what do you do?"
Wait for the collapse.
The personal car will be phased out as the corporate owned fleet comes in to largely take over driving and taxis. We may see full efficiency of automobile design at that point if government stays out of it...
i suggest you ask the same questions of the 47% of the working age population who arean't actually working
u could name at least 10 people I know right now without even thinking too hard about it, who are "unemployed", not getting benefits, not looking fr any kind of job, and are virtually of grid, probably 4 pr 5 are making over $100k a year and do deals in networks, usually with different names in different states and even different countries.
They are, I must admit a lot smarter than than the average American moron, and i couldn't begin to guess the overall number of people who are making a great living in the black market, but I am guessing for everyone making over $100k there are a dozen making $20k
what kind of "deals"? very interesting, please elaborate.
body parts?
Because naps.
The people with great jobs are the ones working for the government; or associated with it.
I'm a tax CPA, I had a part-time job in tax season paying $75/hour. And my boss still made out like a bandit, what he actually charged the clients. I figured he paid me 20% of what he billed.
Isn't that ridiculous? People PAY $$ to "report" to the government.
How did we get to this ridiculous point. This is insane.
ho
Stock markets need to change from being stock price based to dividend based. Investing should be about putting cash up today with the hope of getting more back tomorrow, not about making a quick casino win on market timing.
Imagine if Vegas changed the odds on all the slots so that people starting winning a lot more than they were losing. The mania would be surreal, but then they pulled back and all of these people who now depend on that money begin to panic. Of course let's add in that a large chunk of the nation's pension funds and insurance companies were sending people to Vegas to play these rigged slots as an "investment."
So what's next? Now the government steps in and tells the Vegas casinos that they will provide the cash to keep the party going. If this happened with slot machines people would be up in arms, but swap out slots for stocks and it's about keeping the "system" going.
Capitalism doesn't require a stock market. Corporate bonds and private equity could replace the selling of stock in a rigged market. There would less boom but also less bust and no need for governments to intervene when the whole thing teetered on the verge of collapse.
The author of this article "went full retard". You do know that "you never go full retard".
Where on God's Green Earth would 93,000,000 find employment? This author writes as if he believes that there are 93,000,000 jobs out there in government, corporate and small business America just begging to be filled. There are not even enough jobs out there before adding 93,000,000 job seekers to the equation.
Why do these elite puffballs write as if every working age American is some kind of deadbeat? I have read multiple anecdotes that Personnel departments just throw away résumés from even the briefly unemployed. Personnel departments take the lazy path of least resistance by summarily rejecting job applicants who are not presently employed.
I say again, where are these 93,000,000 open employment opportunities? There aren't any, certainly not after the rich oligarchy strip mined American manufacturing and sent entire factories, and the jobs, to among other places, China.
Next time the dumb USG should elect an American for President
Charles Dickens nailed this one in "A Christmas Carol"
Jorkin: "Mr. Fezziwig, we’re good friends besides good men of business. We’re men of vision and progress. Why don’t you sell out while the going’s good? You’ll never get a better offer. It’s the age of the machine, and the factory, and the vested interests. We small traders are ancient history, Mr. Fezziwig.”
Fezziwig: “It’s not just for money alone that one spends a lifetime building up a business…. It’s to preserve a way of life that one knew and loved. No, I can’t see my way to selling out to the new vested interests, Mr. Jorkin. I’ll have to be loyal to the old ways and die out with them if needs must.”
Working for a small business in a small town is probably worthwhile. Working for a multinational probably sucks without psychopathic tendancies. The way of life hawked in the ads ain't really living. Whatever "they" say about those who aren't "in the workforce" is probably derived from statistics that have about as much bearing on real life as magazine ads & teevee commercials. Many of those being left behind live in big cities.
In my case, in 2009 I quit an $80K-$100K job in NYC and got married and moved to a semi-rural area. I'm a homemaker now. Husband and I have no debt and he has a very recession-proof job unless TSHTF, in which case we put my retirement money into sustainable things. MY JOB is to learn how to make as much food and energy as I can via a kitchen garden and solar panels, etc. And I cut our costs by mending, cooking from scratch, and many other traditional chores. So I am working, but my labor as a housewife is not taxable. I wonder how many other women have done this? Or men, for that matter: I have a lot of writers for friends and many of them are "house husbands."
So, some of us do labor that is not taxable. But we're working.
If you're honest, don't bother.
Those 93 mil are working fer sure. Just not on FICA rolls but off the grid. They aren't stupid.
Why keep funding the ripoff coming outta DC? Merkins are as resourceful as ever.