• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

  • Home
  • Events
  • Alerts
  • Resources
    • Resources – National
    • Resources – Pennsylvania
    • Resources – Venango County
    • Election Voter Registration Resources for Churches
    • Voter Resources
    • Resources – Other Organizations
  • Voter Registration Tools
  • Get Email Alerts
  • Contact Us

Jane Richey / May 24, 2012

Baby Boomer Retirements Do Not Explain Unemployment Figures

Baby-boomer retirements are skewing the nation’s unemployment rate, but not enough to disguise a weak economy, according to a new report.

The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says the slow exit of baby boomers is a factor in the declining jobless rate, and its overall conclusion is that the economy is still quite sick.

The findings are important because they provide insight on why the unemployment rate has dropped from 9.1 percent to 8.1 in less than a year.

EPI’s report could become a talking point for the GOP in the messaging fight on the economy between President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

Republicans and EPI certainly don’t agree on much. For example, EPI has long argued that the government should embrace expansionary policies to generate more demand for workers. Republicans, at least in recent years, have strongly opposed government stimulus proposals.

EPI estimates only one-third of the drop in the national labor participation rate, which measures the share of working-age people who either have a job or are jobless but are actively seeking work, is related to baby-boomer retirements and other structural changes to the workforce.

If the rate is largely dropping because the weak market has made people give up searching for a job, it bolsters the Republican argument that Obama is presiding over an extraordinarily weak recovery and that the fall in the unemployment rate is basically a mirage.

What’s more, if the economy heats up, one could expect the unemployment rate to rise as people come back to the workforce.

However, if the drop in the rate has more to do with changing demographics, it would suggest the workforce is changing. Under this scenario, the rate is less likely to spike if the recovery heats up.

Read more.

Share this:

  • Telegram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
  • Email

Filed Under: Constitutionally Limited Goverment, Free Markets Tagged With: baby boomers, Economic Policy Institute, economy, unemployment

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Local Candidate “Meet & Greet” – March 2, 2023
  • Sept. 11, 2022 – Patriot’s Day – 2nd Screening
  • So, what’s VCTPP doing to bring Election Integrity back?

Archives

Footer

Contact Us

Venango County Tea Party Patriots
155 Summit Drive
Franklin, PA 16323

Phone
814-671-7110

Email
jane@vctpp.org

Frequently Searched Terms

Agenda 21 Barack Obama Ben Bernanke budget climate change Congress Congressional Budget Office debt deficit Department of Energy Department of Health and Human Services economy environment Environmental Protection Agency EPA Federal Reserve fiscal cliff food stamps fracking gas prices global warming Government Accountability Office Governor Corbett green energy Internal Revenue Service IRS Keystone Pipeline marcellus shale Medicaid Medicare natural gas Obamacare President Obama recession regulations sequestration small businesses Social Security spending cuts stimulus taxes TEA Party unemployment United Nations voter ID

Facebook has been “fact-checking,” blocking and removing conservative posts. Follow us on Telegram.org for unedited access.

Click Here

Follow Us

Follow Us

Copyright © 2023 Venango County Tea Party Patriots · Web Design by OptimusMedia.com · Log in