The contention on the left is that the labor participation rate is falling because Baby Boomers are retiring. And while that’s certainly part of the truth, it doesn’t explain this:
The labor force participation rate in 2013 for Americans in their twenties hit the lowest level recorded since 1981, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics started releasing employment data on people in the full age bracket of 20 through 29.
The labor force participation rate for people ages 20 through 24—which BLS has been tracking since 1948—hit a 42-year low in 2013.
1981 was the year of a sharp, engineered recession. President Reagan and Fed Chair Paul Volcker squeezed the life out of inflation, at the short-term cost of jobs and economic growth. The recovery which followed shortly thereafter was one for the record books, thanks also to tax cuts and deregulation.
Today we have tax hikes and ever-increasing regulation, plus the economic uncertainty created by ♡bamaCare!!!’s many delays and waivers. So there’s really no end — no hope, no change — in sight for today’s young unemployed.
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