Labor Participation Rate At 38 Year Low
By Steve Goldstein, Aug 07, 2015 Market Watch
In July, the labor-force participation rate stayed at 62.6%. The rate — alluded to last night by Republican presidential candidates in a televised debate bemoaning the state of the economy — hasn’t veered from a 0.6 percentage point range in nearly two years.
This low participation in the workforce — due to a combination of an aging population, discouraged workers and other factors — has important implications for the U.S. economy and the ability of the U.S. to finance its spending.
Also read: Go-go economy becomes so-so economy
Much of the decline stems from the growing number of baby boomers, who naturally are retiring. The number of people who are 65 years and over, without a disability, who are not in the labor force rose to 24.7 million in July — a rise of about 5 million people since 2008.
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