From 1999 To 2016, America Lost 11.4 Million People From the Workforce (washingtonpost.com)

Andrew Van Dam, writing for the Washington Post: Where did all the jobs go? Well, we're finally starting to find some satisfactory answers to the granddaddy of all economic questions. The share of Americans with jobs dropped 4.5 percentage points from 1999 to 2016 -- amounting to about 11.4 million fewer workers in 2016. At least half of that decline probably was due to an aging population. Explaining the remainder has been the inspiration for much of the economic research published after the Great Recession.

Comments

Automation

[lgw]

Where did the jobs go? It's hardly a mystery: automation.

The real question is, why is it so hard for displaced workers to train for better jobs - skilled trades and skilled manufacturing are very hungry for workers right now. The labor demand is there, what's up with the supply?

America is shockingly bad at adult vocational training? Where are the public schools for this? Where's the corporate participation? Companies don't want to (pay to) train people because they'll just jump to another company once trained, but that's a solvable problem, and companies really need to be involved in the training.

We have scam votech schools that charge a lot, and make empty promises of jobs. We need votech schools directly entwined with employers so that if you pas the class, you get the job, and you only worry about the cost if you change jobs soon after.

Re:Automation

[E-Rock]

It's so obvious that people who track this stuff for a living aren't sure.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have any data, or just your gut?

Where I work zero jobs were lost to automation. All of our cut jobs just had their duties dumped on someone else, who in 2009 was just happy to still have a job. Unfortunately after a decade, the company, and some employees, have forgotten that what they do used to be three jobs.

So many friends can't even get an interview

[Maxo-Texas]

And we are only in our 50s.

Good jobs until one day the job was gone and then they were unhirable.

We need to stop companies from being the primary source for health care. It pushes them into laying people off and not hiring people over 50.

I saw this coming when I was 32 and was able to retire at 51 but I doubt I could get more than a minwage job even tho I was a manager of over a dozen developers in multiple countries on multi-billion dollar projects.