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139 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 25 Jul 2023 \ on: Where are the people who used to work? tech
I've talked about this with several other economists a few times over the past couple years. It's not something we have a total handle on, but here are some thoughts on what's going on:
- Many people retired during the pandemic.
- Those retirements opened positions which pulled people out of the lower tiers of the economy.
- Many immigrants returned home during the lock downs, which greatly increased low wage openings.
- Many women had to drop out of the labor force to take care of their kids during school closures and some number persisted with homeschooling.
- The Quiet Quitting phenomenon has people using more of their leave, so even filled positions are less reliable than normal.
The big yet unanswered question is why wages haven't adjusted to fill so many of these positions, but it might just be that a lot of these jobs don't make sense at the wages required to fill them.
These are great insights, thank you. I hadn't heard about the immigrant one before -- that would seem to have a lot of explanatory power wrt the more high-profile things (e.g., restaurants, certain service industries.)
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That was pointed out by a colleague who works closely with the agriculture community. Apparently, it's been a huge problem for them.
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