The Real Reason For America's Collapsing Labor Force

Howdy All My ATS Friends and Family. Another piece in The Puzzle as to what's going on in our ongoing economic Tsunami that just seems unending. Well What We Have Here is A Failure To Communicate with The American People The Truth about What's Really Happening in The Labor Force .

From what the article says, it seems that we might not be having A Shrinking Labor Force so much because The Boomers are retiring. But, That The Gen Y's/Millenials aren't Really Interested in A Job at Minimum Wage, so as just to eek by and Pay The Bills.

Mods, I have put this in as A Global Meltdown Thread, if you are inclined to move this elsewhere then No Prob.So, If you have any Input or Comments on this, These will be most Welcome here.

Okee Dokey Guys and Gals and Thank You for any comments you might have about this subject. Peace, Love and Donny Osmond Arjunanda

Back in July we wrote "Slamming The Door Shut On The "Plunging Labor Force Participation Rate" Debate Once And For All", in which we showed, definitively we thought, that 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.

As the Census Bureau said then:

"In 2010, 16.2 percent of the population aged 65 and over were employed, up from 14.5 percent in 2005. In contrast, 60.3 percent of the 20 to 24 age group were employed in 2010, down from 68.0 percent in 2005. Employment shares declined from 2005 to 2010 for all age groups younger than age 55. There was no statistical change in the employment share for workers aged 55 to 64 nor those aged 70 to 74. Engemann and Wall (2010) found that more people aged 55 and over were employed during the recession than would have been if there was no recession. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data, Engemann and Wall found that during the 2007–2009 period, employment grew by 7.4 percent for the population aged 55 and over. Based on trends prior to the recession, employment for this age group was expected to grow by only 6.1 percent. All younger age groups experienced a decline in employment during the same 2007 to 2009 period."

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www.zerohedge.com...

Perhaps the reason they do not want to work for the minimum wage, is that the cost of living is not consistent with the minimum wage anymore. Thing used to cost a lot less than they do today, for the same exact product!! Because the greed of these corporations pass things such as fuel costs and their own employees salaries on to the consumers. I refuse to work for minimum wage. I can make much more money doing my own thing, and I dont have to LET the government take it from me either.

a reply to: arjunanda

The article said absolutely nothing about millenials not willing to work for minimum wage as far as I could see.

a reply to: thesmokingman

You wrote: "Because the greed of these corporations pass things such as fuel costs and their own employees salaries on to the consumers."

Do you fail to understand that those things you mentioned and dozens of others are true business expenses that MUST come from the income from the product of that business?

Hi Tavi45, From The Article: "Teens and young adults aren’t as interested in entering the work force as they used to be, a trend that predates the Great Recession", I postulated about the minimum wage part. But let’s look in particular at the youngest part of the eligible workforce. The share of 16- to 24-year-olds saying they didn’t want a job rose from an average 29.5% in 2000 to an average 39.4% over the first 10 months of this year. There was a much smaller increase among prime working-age adults (ages 25 to 54) over that period. And among people aged 55 and up, the share saying they didn’t want a job actually fell, to an average 58.2% this year. Reply and you actually reas the article, A Star For You Peace, Arjunanda. .a reply to: tavi45

It's them Meskins. They swam across that river and took our jobs.
(sarcasm)

Hope this song answers some questions.

Well, the OP is part of the reason but no way near all of the reason. The manufacturing jobs are not there, these were jobs that paid decent and had bennies. Sure there are a lot of jobs out there, for a little over minimum wage. The big employers learned that they actually did better getting rid of some of the higher paid workers after 08. So these jobs in sales and lower executive jobs were not filled. They decided to sub out work instead on a "on need" basis.

Some people will say that we still manufacture a lot of stuff, but they aren't looking at the statistics. There used to be a lot of manufacturing jobs in this country thirty plus years ago that paid a decent wage. Many of those jobs have been exported and consumer based jobs and medical jobs replaced them which makes us dependent on people spending money all the time and being sick more. This is not acceptable.

So it is a combination of many causes that this happened, all based on poor management of the economy by multiple sources. They have been covering this up for decades/

Hey Ricky, You're Right On!!! on your analysis. You just have to watch Prime Time TV and I Swear that more than Half The Commercials are regarding Medical Treatments of some sort or Another. Most showing Older Folks Trying to stay active in a Semi-Ailing State. Good Observation and A Star For You Arjunanda. reply to: rickymouse

a reply to: arjunanda


The real reason. Get it while it lasts. youtu.be... They talk about everything.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: thesmokingman

You wrote: "Because the greed of these corporations pass things such as fuel costs and their own employees salaries on to the consumers."

Do you fail to understand that those things you mentioned and dozens of others are true business expenses that MUST come from the income from the product of that business?

Um...I do not fail to realize those costs, but when the cost of EVERY single item you buy goes up, and the amount of money you make does not go up, something has got to give, right? Do you realize that?

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: thesmokingman

You wrote: "Because the greed of these corporations pass things such as fuel costs and their own employees salaries on to the consumers."

Do you fail to understand that those things you mentioned and dozens of others are true business expenses that MUST come from the income from the product of that business?

Yeah but they never compromise on profit, we take up the slack directly lol!

Yes you're Right Emeraldous, That's exactly what the Corporations do is Pass All Associated costs from Labor to Commodities directly down the line to us the consumer, who end up paying for this through High Inflation and a forced Austerity directly attributable to their Business Models/Policies. Goof Reply Arjunanda. a reply to: Emeraldous

a reply to: arjunanda

I work with a lot of "Gen Y's/Millenials" at a company that pays well above minimum wage ($12.00 to start),
and most, if not all, just don't care about doing any actual work!

They won't pick up after themselves, leaving trash and the tools they use everywhere, and break things for the fun of it!

They just want to socialize / hang out, play with their cell phones, or toss around makeshift Frisbees or balls made out of taped up trash. (when nobody is looking)

I'm kinda glad my time on this plain is almost up (ain't in no hurry though)

I've been in the workforce 40 years now, and I just can't believe what I'm seeing!

Minimum wage is bad for everybody. it's bad for the employee because they don't make enough, it's bad for the employer because a lot of people know they can't go any lower pay wise so you get poor service, high turnover and retraining rates and downright theft by those who feel you owe them more, and it's bad for the tax payer because when these people have to get food stamps and other government help to make ends meet the taxpayer has to pick up the slack. Minimum wage means. "I'd pay you even less but there's a law against it." The employee knows it and your going to get what you pay for- minimum effort.

a reply to: arjunanda

Thanks, I just didn't want this to turn into a lazy millennial bashing thread

That being said, young people are definitely discouraged. Many want to work hard but get screwed by the status quo of our economy. I think one of the main problems is that the job market is driven entirely by the corporations who have no regard for anything but their bottom line.

I've been at numerous part time jobs in my life where I had 0 chance of ever becoming full time because the business knows they have the power and can force me to work my ass off at 29 hours a week and not have to treat me properly.

One of my favorite examples of this was one job where I kept getting called in to fill in for full time workers who just called in sick the day of, for no reason at all. I would leap into action, go into work, and make up for their laziness. Halfway through that quarter my hours got cut drastically because I was informed that I had been working too much.

In other words I was working enough to be considered full time and they didn't want to be forced to pay either benefits or overtime, so they brought me down to 10 hours a week. Obviously I stopped coming in when they needed me after that.

The people at the top in almost every job are living it up on the backs of their underlings. They are removing motivation to work hard. Why should I work my ass off just to let my bosses get vacation, benefits, and goof off on the job? Because I have no choice since employers have total monopoly on power.

I'm from Detroit starting back around 2003/2004 I watched entire industrial complexes disappear over night. I'm not talking about the burned out abandoned buildings you see in pictures of the inner city. I'm talking about the tool and die industry that was scattered over south east Michigan.

I used to work in the tool and die industry. Anything that could be stamped out of metal was made here. At one of my former jobs we had a bunch of dies come in with Chinese writing all over the crates and dies. I asked my boss what was the deal. He said it was cheaper to have the dies made in China. To have them made here would cost 10's of thousands of dollars when they can be made for pennies in China and then just fixed here.

America has outsourced almost it's entire manufacturing base to the far east. These were jobs that started out at higher then minimum wage and within a few years someone could make a decent living.

My grandparents came from the south during WW2 to work in these factories. My grandmother worked at the local tank plant and built parts for the bombs that were dropped on Japan. My grandfather was at Omaha Beach Normandy in WW2. He had an 8th grade education and worked in these factories after the war. Both retired with enough money in the bank to live decent lifestyles. My parents were lucky enough to get a piece of the pie. My generation got totally screwed. I've watched everything my grandparents fought and worked for be systematically destroyed by those at the top.

The American worker can't compete with Asian slave labor.

Thank You for your answer IrVulture, I've kinda noticed the same thing with some of them. (GenY/Millenials) Though, I've also noticed there's a chunk of them with what seems to be large amounts of discretionary Income from somewhere. They don't necessarily seem to have Real Jobs per se (Yes there are Some Trust Funders amongst them). But from what I've heard told by some friends in The IT/Computer Biz, There's kind of an Underground Economy with a lot of them, Where there's a lot of them doing freelance stuff that's neither a Hobby or A Job as such and being paid in Crypto Type Currencies I've never heard of (I've heard of Bitcoin, Apple Pay etc.). But these are different obscure things that I've heard bits and pieces about over the last few years.

It's like they not only have A Parallel Culture but Economy as well and seem to be able to well afford The $2500 a Month One Bedroom Boxes Round here in The Westside of LA No Problem.. Just an observation as to maybe why there is such a High Rate of what seems to be Low Labor Participation amongst this group. Again Thanks for your reply and Peace Arjunanda a reply to: IrVulture

a reply to: arjunanda

the reason labor is low is because theres no entry level jobs. companies arent training and there isnt many things left to do. warehouse supply chain freight, and service thats the economy.

Yep Onequestion, Besides The IT Work around here, that's pretty much all that's on the plate for people. Good Reply and A Star got you Arjunanda. a reply to: onequestion