Why is the labor pool shrinking?

[kentuck]

I heard an economist on one of the cable channels say that there were more jobs than people to fill them. He said the unemployment rate was lower because the labor pool had shrunk?

Why would the labor pool be shrinking?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Because as the economy grows, the pool shrinks.

People who don't have jobs get jobs. People who have jobs get better jobs. Also, with baby boomers retiring, the demographics aren't there to fill the jobs that need filling.

The pool shrinks unless employers change standards, including hiring requirements and compensation.

[shanti]

2. Baby boomers retiring?

[Freddie]

7. Like me!

And many others. We had fewer kids than our Greatest Generation parents did. Millennials are having fewer kids than we did. Etc.

[struggle4progress]

3. Because after people have been unemployed for a while, they aren't counted anymore

[DBoon]

4. Fewer immigrants?

Not just the ones deported or denied entry, but potential legal immigrants who decided the USA was not friendly to them

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Fewer people being born, fewer people entering the labor market.

Also, given that fully a third of people take Social Security at the earliest possible age, 62, that tells you something. Some of them will continue to work, but probably only a small minority, especially as there's a penalty if you earn too much money before your full retirement age.

I know that it's popular to blame a shrinking labor pool on supposedly vast numbers of people who get discouraged because they can't find work and drop out of the labor market entirely. But usually when jobs become available again, many of those formerly "discouraged" workers come back and get jobs.

Population pyramids are quite interesting, and can shed some light on this, especially if you look at ones for specific states. When I start looking at population pyramids I tend to get lost in looking at them for rather a while. It's something I highly recommend.

[Runningdawg]

6. Teenagers and students not working, people retiring, people giving up, too sick to work any longer.

[marlakay]

8. What type of jobs?

I bet spoiled kids of today think most menial ones are beneath them.