- Banned
- #41
Except the Unemployment rate isn't a percentage of the population. It's a percentage of the Labor Force, which is the sum or Employed and Unemployed. So if you added in the women's participation, you'd be adding to the numerator and the denominator of the equation.
Yes, that is true, but that only proves my point.
There are more people employed in the US than there were in the past,
and less people who are able to work who are unemployed, as a percentage of the population.
However, there are now more people willing and able to work relative to the number who are working, so the unemployment rate is higher.
One must remember that the fact that there are more workers available to work does not create jobs in and of itself. Jobs are created by demand for products or services.
To some extent, having more people working creates more capital to create a larger demand, but the US is not an enclosed economy, and US citizens certainly do not spend their money on their own products only.
Add to all this the fact that automation is driving millions of people out of work, and you have the situation we have now.
In my personal opinion, the number of unemployed may never go down again. However, the unemployment rate may go down as some people give up looking for work and decide that having one family member at home might not be so bad after all.
And before someone goes and accuses me of sexism for that last statement, I did not say the person who stays at home and takes care of things there has to be a woman.