how come neither of you left-wing losers will just man up and say exactly what the percentage of the declining participation is caused by retiring Baby boomers?
your own source says 1/3 of them are people who still want a job. so you're starting with 66%
Actually, the WHOLE 2012 quote says that only 15% of the dropouts are of prime working age. It then makes a reference to what the future will show one way or the other. And so far the Barclays economists ARE being proven right, there has been no increase in LPR or unemployment in the years following the article!
From the source you reference:
"According to the report,
just a third of the drop in labor force participation came from those who still wanted a job—and only 15% of those folks are of prime working age, 25 to 54. So, the economists see “the possibility of a large and sudden return of previously discouraged job seekers to the labor force as remote.
This would be good for the bearish holdouts on the economic recovery.
Those skeptics say the dropping unemployment rate mostly is from a drop in able-bodied people quitting the job search (and lowering labor force participation). And, they say, when the economy does pick back up, those folks will want back in. So, when they re-enter, the falling unemployment becomes the
rising unemployment rate.
But if the Barclays economists are right, and the labor-force participation decrease is from baby boomers retiring, then we won’t see a large increase in labor force participation later. Or a rise in the unemployment rate."