Are Baby Boomers Stealing Jobs from the Young? (Part 1)

Townhall.com ^ | May 12, 2012 | Political Calculations

[Kaslin]

Walter Russell Mead writes on the disappearance of jobs for non-Baby Boomers:

An analysis of recent jobs figures at Investor.com reveals a disturbing development: the biggest beneficiaries from the economic recovery are Boomers, while everyone else is getting the shaft.

Since the Obama administration took office, there has been an epochal shift. Young workers have continued to lose jobs and incomes, while older workers have actually gained ground.

In fact, the Obama administration has seen a boom in the prospects of the 55+ crowd; their (I should say ‘our’) employment stands at a 42 year high. Net, there are 3.9 new jobs for people over 55 since the recession began in December 2007, but there are 8.1 million fewer jobs for the young folks since that time.

Jed Graham's IBD article features a chart that shows the employment-to-population ratio that applies for the following age groupings: Age 16-24, Age 25-55 and Age 55 and up:

In the chart, we see that those Age 55 and older would appear to have a near constant share of their population group having jobs.

Meanwhile, we see significant decreases in the employment share of the populations for both the Age 25-54 group and especially for the Age 16-24 group since December 2007, which marks the beginning of the so-called "Great Recession".

We thought that outcome was interesting enough to dig deeper into the data to see how the age distribution of the U.S. workforce has changed over this period of time.

And to make it really interesting, we've decided to go back to November 2006 to do it. Here's why:

1. The seasonally-adjusted level of total employment for the U.S. economy hit its all time peak in November 2007, just ahead of the Great Recession. Going back to November 2006 will allow us to capture the last full year of economic expansion for the U.S. economy.
2. Coincidentally, the seasonally-adjusted number of teens (Age 16-19), who represent the lowest end of the age groups for which the BLS reports monthly jobs data, and is also the most negatively affected group over this period of time, last peaked in November 2006. Going back to this point in time will also fully capture what has happened with teen employment in the years since.
3. The BLS breaks almost all of its age-related jobs data into five-year long cohorts, covering groupings like Age 20 to 24, Age 25 to 29, Age 30 to 34, et cetera. Going back to November 2006 will allow us to see how the employment situation for the same people whose employment was recorded in one of the age groups in November 2006 changed after they all moved up into the next higher age cohort in November 2011.

The downside to our more detailed approach is that we're not going to be able to use the BLS' seasonally-adjusted data for these older five-year age groupings, because the BLS only reports the non-seasonally adjusted data it collects for them, which means that the data we'll be using won't match these more commonly reported values.

Still, because we'll be comparing the data for the same month (November) five years apart, our analysis should only differ in very minor respects from what might be achieved using seasonally-adjusted data, if it had been available.

We're going to do this in a three-part series of posts, with this post being the first. Our next stop: the change in the age distribution of the American workforce from November 2006 to November 2011!

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Sorry if I earlier sounded like I was trying to just criticize.

More an attempt at “tough love”.

Good luck. You’ll do fine. Congratulations.

[DB]

What us “older” people don’t like hearing is excuses and whining about how someone “stole” your opportunities which sounds a whole lot like entitlement syndrome. Life is hard. Life isn’t fair. We play the hand we’re dealt the best we can. Sometimes we guess wrong and have to start over. Sometimes we fall down, sometimes hard. We try to pick ourselves up and move on without blaming others for the consequences of our choices.

As far as our current state of affairs, there’s much blame to go around. Clearly many generations of people have voted themselves goodies at other’s expense and thought a little “soft” socialism would be a wonderful thing. In 2008 overwhelmingly your generation voted for Obama for a wide variety of reasons, from being cool voting for the black guy, wanting a “free” education, “green” energy to save the planet, no war, to raising taxes on the “wealthy” to make things “fair”, whatever...

Now your generation along with everyone else is learning the cost of all that “free” stuff and your vote. You can’t tax the hell out of your employer and expect your employer to continue growing the business. Poor people don’t hire people. You can’t regulate everything and then wonder where the jobs went. You can’t demonize employers and then expect them to go out on a limb and expand their business. You can’t constantly change the tax code and expect businesses to do any long term planning. Business needs some stability in future visibility to plan effectively - see Obamacare...

---

If you are really good at statistics and modeling, there’s a wide array of fields it can be applied to. Why limit yourself to economics?

[DB]

Sorry, but you are just blaming others for your choices.

Life is change. It’s non stop. Adapt or whither away. It won’t adapt to us. That’s just hard cold reality.

You chose a History major. You chose to be a teacher. Those choices have consequences. Just because it worked for your parents doesn’t mean it will continue to work or there aren’t additional complications to making it work for you.

In short what you seem to be saying is “the man is keeping you down”... Does that sound familiar?

[wm25burke]

Like I said, being reared in a nest full of LIFER teat sucklers isn’t the life experience that earns the right to teach other’s children.

Maybe, in between warehouse shifts, you should talk to them about why the system they’re evidently an intricate part of is FUBARed?

[Clara Lou]

I think you look “stupid” too, because you’re not looking at the end result.

Now, isn’t that nice? Two adults on this board have insulted each other? Make your day? “Stupid” added so much to the conversation.

[who knows what evil?]

I'd rather hire a boomer than an under 30 moron who may or may not show up tomorrow depending on how he feels.

Bingo. I don't shop very often, but I went into a Home Depot recently to purchase a couple of items. I asked my wife if she noticed anything different...she had seen the same thing...all the employees were older...the younger ones had vanished.

About damn time. Good customer service was BACK! You could see the difference...the change in work ethic was palpable. The 'under 30' crowd screwed themselves with their arrogance, their slothful attitudes, their appearance...good riddance. Long past time that employees recognize that the BEST employees are the OLDER ones. LOL at 'generation duh'.

[who knows what evil?]

With that said, I will note that my generation and older valued hard work, diligence, and that you had to earn your promotions. The young now are an "entitlement generation" who embody the opposite. That may not be a popular opinion here, but as a Manager for 20 years it is my observation.

Standing and applauding until my hands are bleeding...well said!

[redgolum]

Feel pity for them. They were promised a bright shiny Star Trek world, and have never recovered that they were lied to.

Their end will be very bad. The generations they raised after them learned their lessons well, I fear, and will kill them off before it gets to “inconvenient”.

And once again, those of us who came after will have to clean up the mess.

[who knows what evil?]

Unfortunately that stereotype is branded onto those of us who eschew that type of behavior and we suffer for it.

Another excellent point...the younger ones that DO 'get it' are going to be screwed by the 'entitled ones'.

[wm25burke]

>>We can’t help the economy we’re given my friend.

Help yourselves first.

All fire in the mind and no grease on the elbow just burns down the village, again.

Stop whining and go BUILD something.

[wm25burke]

"Also spend to [sic] much time reading history and theolgy [sic] books."

I see.  Does your "engineering" reflect a similar attention to detail?

"kill them off before it gets to “inconvenient”."

Certainly worked for the Khmer Rouge, didn't it, Red?

[cripplecreek]

A few years back my house thermostat took a crap in the middle of the night and I had to drive to town to get a new one.

I wandered around Walmart for a half hour and finally found a kid and asked him for help finding what I needed. He said he could help me in a minute so I went back to the general area to wait. After another 10 minutes I looked over and saw the kid putting his coat on and heading for the door. His shift was over and he was going home.

Factory work is the same. As a paint room foreman almost all of my painters were parolees from a halfway house. They always showed up, did good work and begged for all the overtime I could legally give them. I had one 60+ year old woman who prepped parts and the 3 mildly retarded adults. As far as I’m concerned I had the best crew in the whole shop

[catfish1957]

Boomers have not lost jobs or gained jobs they have kept jobs.

I also think you are missing the point, that perspective employers want employees who have a stronger work ethic. Not that it is exactly true 100% of the time. When hiring, I much rather have a candidate with 25 years of experience from my generation, than 10 years of yours if ecery thing else is equal. Not only adding the perception of the work ethic, but thnk about it. As much as the X'ers hate to admit it, experience does count for something.

I also think the mumbers tend to support blue collar segment issue, where in most cases seniorority counts the most. (Which I don't agree)

[nodumbblonde]

That’s really interesting. I had no idea consultants were in such demand.

The math probably looks even worse when you consider people are living longer than ever now. It’s not like you can go find another job at 85 when you run out of money. It has to be really scary. :(

[Black_Shark]

I’m not limiting myself to Economics. Any company that requires data analysis (retail, etc.) I have applied too.

I described the dilemma my generation is currently facing in this economy earlier. In summary, I’m going to keep applying and interviewing because someone, somewhere will be willing to give me a chance to prove myself. That’s all I need, like Jeremy Lin haha.

“What us “older” people don’t like hearing is excuses and whining about how someone “stole” your opportunities which sounds a whole lot like entitlement syndrome. Life is hard. Life isn’t fair. We play the hand we’re dealt the best we can. Sometimes we guess wrong and have to start over. Sometimes we fall down, sometimes hard. We try to pick ourselves up and move on without blaming others for the consequences of our choices.”

I completely agree which is one of the points I was trying to make. Thank you for echoing my sentiments! I also agree with the gentleman who stated that we need to avoid a generation vs. generation war. The older generation needs to mentor us young folks and the young folks need to respect and learn from their elders otherwise we’re all screwed in some way.

[Black_Shark]

I am whining? I seem to remember stating in my posts that “I am going to keep trying, work hard to get my first shot, etc.”

That’s not whining my friend. That’s called reality and my acceptance of reality and the hard work it takes to get ahead.

[Black_Shark]

Thank you and I also apologize.

My last post to you was very rash and written while I was frustrated.

I need to learn not to post while frustrated :D

[who knows what evil?]

Try this: A vote for Obama is a vote for Obama. A vote for anybody else is Not a vote for Obama.

Common sense rears its uncomfortable head once again...

[Jim from C-Town]

Read the chart read the story.

The points I brought up are supported by evidence, not speculation.

[DB]

I’ll add there’s a little more to it.

Many employers can’t afford to train people right now. They need people that can do the job from the start and be productive. Training people is a longer term plan. Technical jobs can easily take 6 months to years to get someone inexperienced up to speed. Many companies today are just trying to survive the short term and can’t afford to think long term. And with government endlessly changing regulation and taxation business can’t predict where those things will be in 6 months and whether or not they can absorb the new costs or will be forced to cut back and/or go under.