Friday, October 2, 2009

Hours Worked per Person Tailspin Continues

Employment to population ratio (i.e. percent of the population working) cliff dive....



Multiplied by the number of hours worked per week cliff dive...



Equals the least amount of hours worked per population member since... well ever recorded (since 1964)...



Source: BLS

11 comments:

  1. Surely it is the aim of any society to have 100% unemployement? I cannot wait till we are all sitting round all day by a swimming pool being served by monkey butlers.

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  2. Other than the recent economic troubles, your last graph is basically flat. What's your point?

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  3. I should say recent and other significant historical periods of trouble.

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  4. "Other than the recent economic troubles, your last graph is basically flat. What's your point?"

    The most recent economic trouble IS my point.

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  5. http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/10/02/chart-of-the-day-hours-worked-edition/

    Jake my good man, you have been discovered!

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  6. Also today (not sure why today was my magical day)...

    Naked Capitalism
    http://tinyurl.com/y8u2ms5

    The Big Picture
    http://tinyurl.com/ybxawph

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  7. Very sneaky graphs. Start the Y-axis at zero, please.

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  8. Why doesn't the first graph of "Participation Rate" agree with the workforce participation rate chart on the BLS web site? Your chart peaks at about 65 pct in 1999, while the BLS chart peaks at 67.5 pct in the same time frame. Also the BLS chart, which is plotted showing only ordinate values between 55 and 70 pct, has much less sharp variations than yours. What is the source of data here?

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  9. Cheers Jake on your "magical day". It's great to see you cited on some of my other fave econ blogs for your work on how this mess is affecting the bottom 99%.

    I lived in Japan '87-'98 and was doing adult education among other things. I had a lot of contact with people late teens into thirties.

    If you were to focus an occasional post on young people, that would be good. See for example "The long-lasting effects of the economic crisis" on why this is an important topic.

    BTW I graduated from HS in Pittsburgh in 1974. So I'm not a kid saying "pay attention to me". Just that I've seen how regional and national crises have landed hard on young folks who are the future.

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  10. Anon- nice catch... my figures are from employment to population rate, not participation rate, which gets to the right hours worked per week, but was labeled wrong. Will fix...


    http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab1.htm

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  11. CTW's note on youth above is seconded. I too came of age in Pittsburgh late 70s. Returned last month for a funeral and Homestead blew my mind: where once 30K union steelworkers toiled, now a collection of crummy big box retailers. Progress?

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