Bob Fraser explains why fewer people are working or looking for work. COVID pushed many out of the labor market and they haven't come back. Meanwhile, wages for those still working have spiked sharply.
people are exiting the workforce. This is the labor force participation rate. And what this is, it's a, you know, it's simple concept. It's the percentage of the population that is either working or looking for work. So this is people that are in the workforce. So if you've got someone who's retired, this is, they would not be considered in the workforce or a young person or somebody says, no, I don't, I just not going to look for a job anymore. I don't want to work. Okay. What happens? You see this, this trend going down because of demographics. This is COVID. So you saw a lot of people suddenly exit the workforce and they haven't quite come back. They're not coming back. Why is that? What's, what's going on? And, and the second thing we're seeing because of COVID we're seeing the wages go up. And anyone, anyone who's been in the job market recently knows this. You're seeing this is the average hourly earnings has suddenly spiked again. This is, this is COVID right here. And you see earnings just spiking up.
