Reclaiming Common Sense

The Workforce Population is Down for those 45-59 Years of Age. Most of this decline is in the "Gen X" generation. There has been a persistent decline in the number of people working who were 45-49 years of age during 2009. WE also have seen a persistent decline in April workers 40-44 years of age since 2013, and 50-54 years of age. You will also see that there are fewer people 20-24 years of age who are working now than were working during 2014. We are also seeing a drop in the workers 16-19 years of age.

I was listening to the radio Monday morning when I heard a story that 10,000 Baby Boomers were retiring daily. That would mean that we would need over 3.6 million jobs a year to be filled. This column has written numerous articles regarding the "Red, Gray, and Blue." That number did not seem realistic. "Baby Boomers" have traditionally been recognized as those born between 1946 through 1964. These people would be between 54 and 72 right now. This column has found recent increases in the workforce population, the employed workers, and even the unemployed worker levels for those over 59 years of age. This column has already written numerous articles on the April Employment Situation Report.

Was April as good for older workers as it was for young workers during April?

Unemployment was near an April Record High for those over 75 years of age. Those 60-64 years also saw an increase in unemployment.  The good news is that unemployment was down for almost every other age group. The real unemployment level is higher for those over the age of 55 years of age than it was during April 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. The only time is was higher for those over age 75 was April 2013.

Employment was up for Almost All Age Groups, Record level for some. The number of people employed, working either full-time or part-time jobs, was down month to month and April to April for those 45-49 years of age and for those 50-54 years of age. These are not Baby Boomers, for the most part. The 54 year olds are just barely Baby Boomers. April employment was at record levels for those 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74 and 75 years of age and older.

The Workforce Population is Down for those 45-59 Years of Age. Most of this decline is in the "Gen X" generation. There has been a persistent decline in the number of people working who were 45-49 years of age during 2009. WE also have seen a persistent decline in April workers 40-44 years of age since 2013, and 50-54 years of age. You will also see that there are fewer people 20-24 years of age who are working now than were working during 2014. We are also seeing a drop in the workers 16-19 years of age.  The participation rate is up for those over the age of 50. This has been discussed many times in articles from this column. Part of the problem is that the Dow Jones Industrial Averages saw a decline during 2001 as part of the DotCom crash. The "Great Recession" brought the stock market back to the 2001 level, again. {People who thought that they could retire during 2001, Boomers 37 to 55 years of age, found that they had to work until 2008, 44 to 62 years of age then they had to work again until very recently.  There are not many people who retire at 37 or 44 years of age. The situation now is that these workers are now 54 to 72 years of age, and these are the age groups where we are seeing employment levels at record levels.


The article that was being referenced, most likely was "more than half of 60-somethings say that they are delaying retirement." It must have had a different headline earlier during the day when the story on the radio broke. People are working longer. People who are over 60 and who are unemployed consider themselves unemployed and employable. There is a problem in the 40-54 age group and even a problem in the 16-24 age group.


It's the economy