In a prior post, we dissected the declining labor force participation rates in the U.S. …
Splitting the population by gender revealed some interesting differences in LFPR trends…
Note that from 1965 to about 1999, men (blue line) were steadily leaving the labor force.
But, during that period women (red line) were entering at a faster clip than the men were dropping out … so total LFPR (black line) continued to inch up.
Around 1999, women’s LFPR flattened out … but men continued to leave the workforce … so the total LFPR peaked and started to creep down.
Since 2008, both men and women have been leaving the work force, so the total LFPR has steepened its decline.
But, men are leaving at a slightly faster rate than women.
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And, we posted the results of a study indicating that women’s LFPR in the U.S. is low relative to other countries … and declining at a time that it’s increasing in other countries.
Pundits attribute the higher LFPRs in other countries to more flexible work hours and government subsidized childcare.
Let’s look into things a bit deeper … (more…)
