Whose working

The labor force participation rate measures the percent of people age 16 and over who are eligible and able to work and are working. The rate reached a high in 2000 at 67.1% and has fallen since from 66% in 2008 to 61.7% in 2020. There was a large drop from 63.1% in 2019 to 61.8% in 2021 and this was due to the pandemic. The long term drop is caused by a number of reasons including baby boomers retiring, young people remaining longer in college, moms leaving work as the cost of childcare increases and single women getting married. While there were many more people working in 2019 (157 million) than in 2000 (129 million) that would be expected since the population increased during those years from 282 million to 328 million. During the pandemic 25 million dropped out of the work force but 15 million of those have returned. That is why it is controversial when Biden says he has created 15 million jobs since taking office. We still have 10 million able bodied people sitting on the sidelines while there are 12 million unfilled jobs and businesses frantically look for help.