The jobs crisis for younger workers
Commentary: New college grads can’t get a break
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Another half million Americans left the labor force in March, and the labor force participation rate for people aged 20 to 24 declined by six-tenths of a percent, compared to two-tenths of a percent for the labor force as a whole.
Young people have the lowest labor force participation rate — the fraction of Americans employed or looking for work — since 1972. They are hurting.
So it was disappointing to hear Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist, tell David Stockman on last Sunday’s ABC news program “This Week” that the gradual decline in the labor force participation rate is caused by the aging of the workforce.
“About half of the decline in labor force participation that we’ve seen is, in fact, just demographics…. The fact of the matter is it’s not just people hitting 65 but people often tend to retire before then so the numbers are not that bad,” Krugman said.
Wrong, Mr. Krugman. Americans 65 and over, and 55 and over, are doing far better than the rest of the labor force. Labor Department data show that the labor force participation rate is not declining due to an aging population — older folks are staying in. It’s declining due to young people dropping out.
Youth unemployment is a serious matter, and not just for the young.
A society that doesn’t offer young people work opportunities will spend more on payments for income support. It will see more crime, as young people “hang out” on the streets. Hard-won college degrees will atrophy. The vaunted American work ethic admired by Alexis de Tocqueville will slowly wither.
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