Question

I want to you consider the economic effects of the declining U.S. labor force and labor force participation rates. The decline is happening for both genders, but the trend is especially negative for males.

Please watch the following video on the decline of men (and women) labor force participation rates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCOfP3e9Co8) and be respond to the following questions.

1. Who are these men, and how are they spending their time?
2. What are some of the supply and demand factors for the declining participation rates?
3. Has the decline in participation rates occurred in other OECD (i.e. wealthy economies) countries?
4. What can we do about it? That is, bringing these men/women back into the labor markets.
5. Why should the next President (and us) care about this decline in participation rate?

Answer 1

1. These are the people who are mostly too old to be in school or too young to be retired by our conventional standards and are just doing nothing to get a job. These are the people will low education qualification or they are poor. They are most of the time watching television.
2. The demand by the employers has got down as well and the government is less generous than before and the wages offered to them are not high
3. Yes the decline in participation rates occurred in other OECD (i.e. wealthy economies) countries.