Post

A lot of people simultaneously realizing work ain’t worth what they’re paying? Good luck with that, bean counters.

“May explain”? 100% correlation is fact without need to “explain”.

Could also be some of the people they insist on kidnapping out of the labor force 🤷🏻‍♀️

And people who are too sick to work and don’t have the capacity to apply for disability or ssd because it’s hard work

I feel like the vast majority of people have no idea what the current LFPR is (or historically has been) so it's hard to see how it would be affecting how people view the economy. If people erroneously think it's worse than it really is (pretty darn high actually), maybe that has an effect.

henryfudgeofficial.substack.com/p/degeneracy...

Yeah, my spouse was let go in April 2025 and has mostly given up on finding another job and thrown himself into freelancing and other side quests.

I went fully-remote in the brief golden age of remote work, we built a house in the boonies, and if I get laid off I honestly don’t know if I can find work in my industry. If I *don’t* get laid off for five more years, we’ll be sitting very pretty. My mood is complicated!

Like, people are not fundamentally rational, so neither is the market. Stop acting like a rational view is all one needs to figure this out.

I've been people for 10+ years.

Hi! Signed, an unemployed RN.

Hello people, I am also people

I am so happy I (inadvertently at the time) left software for my side gig five years ago

As a person who makes a living helping companies hire people I am also a people you know.

Huh. Right around when the AI bubble started inflating.... What a coincidence!

it's not that people are checking out of the job market but that the job market itself is shrinking

still fucking struggling over here

Spouse of a friend was laid off in 2025 from a long-term (decade-plus) job and it took them almost a year to get a new job. Relieved to be working again, but that was a slog.

My son spent over 6 months applying for software eng jobs, getting only three interviews and mostly no contact at all. He worked hard at it. He has given up and is doing gig work trying to save his home from foreclosure. The likes of Bessent etc don't know and don't car.

Companies seemed ready to start hiring again earlier this year until President dipshit bombed Iran

I’m people too! Sucks balls! 🤗

It’s cheaper to stay home than work for minimum wage.

It might be called “retirement” but a ton of 50-60+ professionals have been laid off and there is no job market for them. A lot of those retirements are not elective. Ask me how I know.

It also makes the problem look slightly worse because the prime-age bucket is twice the size of the other buckets, in terms of years covered.

Two things going on here. 1) LFPR is declining on a long-term basis because of demographics, in a multi-decade process that we are in the middle of. (Secular) 2) Higher frequency declines are very rapid and not obviously driven by that process. (Cyclical?)

is this a big drop?

Am I blind or does that not say YoY?

They are just trying to get clicks, presumably.

the blogpost i links covers this. there was a big shift in population and population composition; shifting towards older people will pull down LFPR. then, there was a big drop in prime age labor force participation in june 2026 (what, i think, george's data point towards).

Looks like a lot of the recovery had already happened before COVID, and the inflection point is late Obama years. Did this just happen by accident as a side-effect of no one wanting to raise taxes or cut spending?

I gave notice to my job that I am retiring this month. I will look for part time job and collect Social Security. I would rather be poorer and happier. Jobs today offer no security, employers treat us like crap more than ever in my career. I am glad I am only responsible for myself.

The job market has been brutal for a couple years — for folks 50+, it’s like being trapped in a black hole.

But the "wages are keeping pace with inflation" charts provided such comfort to people who do not like to think about people with no wages.

No. The article is just click bait. If you adjust for age, labor force participation is much higher than any time in 2002-2021.

bsky.app/profile/pear...

Well it's a good thing that the economy is so strong lol

I feel this so very much. myself I'm looking at being underemployed for the next year

Respectfully, I wouldn’t say explain, but part of a more complex picture

Agree with your take. I would do it if I could get health insurance, I know my brother is doing it. We're all just sick and tired of 30+ years of crap and stupidity from bosses and clients in the workplace. We want to live a little and enjoy ourselves in the twilight of our lives.

It will drop further as the economy experiences greater levels of automation.

Well, the article is wrong unless they're arguing that it's really bad that old people can retire

This is important. Companies now eke out the profit margins the Street expects in large part by eliminating entire levels of middle management, & either paying their successors meaningfully less or not replacing them at all. Huge numbers of professionals forced into early retirement or “consulting”

Hard to get a job, but most places I go to don't have enough staff. Just dealing with a minor medical problem is a nightmare of unreturned phone calls. I remember everyone was hiring in 2022, but now it seems like employers have decided to provide Soviet Union style customer service since then.