I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...
... the number shocked me for some reason. Not the number 475 (which is the number of days until the Mayan calendar ends next year -- just in case you want to decide this Labor Day weekend to call in sick for the next few hundred days since the world might be ending next December) ... but the various percentages listed in a recent chart documenting the "share of population working, 2010*" (note that these numbers do not include the military and self-employed).
I can theorize as to why the numbers are so low (Mississippi is at the bottom of the list with just 36.7% employed --and even the top placeholder, North Dakota with 55.8%, seems to be under what I would expect). Is this the story of the Great Recession written in overall employment figures? Or a representation in the negative space of those whom even our own government has stopped counting (the long-term unemployed who just gave up on the workplace)? Might it simply be as it always was in that some states are just retirement targets and don't "contribute" to the ranks of the employed like others do? Is this what happens when Baby Boomers age?
This Labor Day weekend, I am happy to have a job. I'm just gobsmacked to learn that that makes me a minority in my state -- and in every state of the union but three (North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming).
Happy Labor Day?
USE THIS INTERACTIVE MAP TO SEE EMPLOYMENT PERCENTAGES FOR YOUR STATE:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2011-04-13-more-americans-leave-labor-force.htm
THIS PERSON REALLY DISLIKES THE BABY BOOMERS:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/in-2011-the-baby-boomers-start-to-turn-65-16-statistics-about-the-coming-retirement-crisis-that-will-drop-your-jaw
WHY NOT POSTPONE THE REPORT UNTIL AFTER THE HOLIDAY?:
http://www.kesq.com/news/29067307/detail.html
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