Posted on 04/14/2011 8:43:31 AM PDT by quesney
the share of the population that is working fell to its lowest level last year since women started entering the workforce in large numbers three decades ago, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Only 45.4% of Americans had jobs in 2010, the lowest rate since 1983 and down from a peak of 49.3% in 2000. Last year, just 66.8% of men had jobs, the lowest on record. The bad economy, an aging population and a plateau in women working are contributing to changes that pose serious challenges for financing the nation’s social programs.
“What’s wrong with the economy may be speeding up trends that are already happening,” says Marc Goldwein, policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group favoring smaller deficits.
For example, job troubles appear to have slowed a trend of people working later in life, putting more pressure on Social Security, he says.
Another change: the bulk of those not working has shifted from children to adults.
In 2000, the nation had roughly the same number of children and non-working adults. Since then, the population of non-working adults has grown 27 million while the nation added just 3 million children under 18.
Other key findings:
•Men leave. Working-age men have been dropping out of the labor force for decades. The disappearance quickened when construction and manufacturing jobs vanished in the recession from December 2007 through June 2009. Until the 1960s, more than 80% of men worked.
•Women stay. The trend of women getting jobs offset the loss of working men until the late 1990s. The share of women holding jobs rose from 36% in 1960 to 57% in 1995, then leveled off. The rate was 56% in 2010.
[...]
“No matter how wealthy you are, you have a problem if half the population is not working and depending on those who are,” says John Goodman, president of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis. “Wherever you look, we’ve overpromised.”
Do not overlook the Black Market. In failed socialism it grows.
Scary stuff.
Galt’s Gulch is gittin’ a mighty crowded!
Here’s how libs plan to bring the unemployment rate down: Keep taking people out of the workforce and “seasonally” add in 100,000 fantasy jobs every month.
If this can be maintained until the 2012 elections, the unemployment rate will be 0% and nobody will have a job!...Liberal Heaven for Democrats!
I smell 8.7%
OH...must be Bush's fault. Yeah right!
I think the American people on workman’s comp. are so well paid by the gubmint that they refuse to apply for the myriad of jobs being offered around here. 30 years ago the colleges were teaching how to live off the system. I guess they’re still doing it. Besides Gubmint jobs pay so much better than the private sector!
And how many of them will, also, become permanent voters for leftists that weren’t before?
Obama’s solution to this? Tax those that are still working more heavily.
FUBO
“Do not overlook the Black Market. In failed socialism it grows.”
Very true. We are a heating/air/plumbing/electrical contractor, and we have noticed a HUGE increase in cash payments or trades. I have been offered coin collections, used cars, motorcycles, exchange of service, I have had people offer to work for me for a set period of time for free, etc in exchange for work done or parts etc.
As I am not a pawn-broker, and I really have no idea of the value of some items (such as the coin collection offered over the winter for a new furnace), I tend to turn the offer down, and refer the customers to our bank, which offers financing, but our bank is getting very particular about who they finance at this time, so I may in the future, have to start accepting chickens and goats as payment for services rendered...
Per the chart on this article, only 37.3% of California residents are working. A huge percentage of those work for GOVERNMENT, and produce nothing.
They are down to 20-25% of the population trying to support the other 75-80%. We have already crossed the Rubicon, I fear.
It’s fast coming down to the the takers/parasites/users vs. a small minority of the productive.
Pretty good timing for the release of “Atlas Shrugged Part 1”. I’m thinking that it will start slowly but become a huge box office hit, and the media will ignore it.
All by design.....
Just because they don’t have ‘jobs’ doesn’t mean they’re not working. Check the bulletin board at 7-11 for their business cards.
My thought...more people will be working under the radar trying to keep more money from going to the government. We won’t be able to do that with more financial reporting to the government.
I wish that God would zap all the Democrats in Washington, DC!
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