As the economy continues to grow and
strengthen it is amazing to me that Conservatives are not only disputing the
facts, but they are actually sticking to their story about how President Obama
is destroying America.
One thing that truly has been
driving me crazy is that every time I post anything about the unemployment rate
or new jobs numbers, I inevitably get a bunch of righties spouting off their
favorite Fox News talking points.
And one of the most common is the
participation rate argument. They love to say that the only reason that the
unemployment rate is falling is because most unemployed Americans have given up
looking for work.
OK, so you want to talk about the
employment participation rate? Great….let’s do that.
The biggest contributing factor to
the drop in labor force participation is simple. Baby boomers are retiring. In addition the number of disabled
persons (mostly over the age of 55) is increasing, which of course is also
directly being impacted by the baby boomer generation.
As a matter of fact, giving up
looking does not even make the top 3 list of why the rate is dropping. The
third reason, according to the numbers is that many young people have decided
to go back to school.
Now I do admit that the number of people who have just given
up looking for work is still too high. And the truth is that the overall
participation rate is likely to remain higher than anyone would like. But the
real reason for that is directly due to retirement. And the fact of the matter
is that the number of Americans who’ve given up pales in comparison to the top
3 reasons.