User:ChloeCuongNguyen/Labor force in the United States

Female Labor Force Participation (LFP)

Starting from 1960, the world and the U.S witnessed a big increase in female LFP to the labor market, especially in developed countries such as Europe, and the U.S. The main reasons lead to this increase could be:


 * Higher real wage
 * Decline in reservation wage
 * Changes in attitudes and policies

According to Congressional Research Service, the gap between women and men was smaller since 1979, the cumulative % change in real wages for women was increased by 9.6% (10th percentile), while men was decreased by -7.7%. However, with the incredible increase, women's real wage was still lower than men's. This could be explained by different starting point. Starting from 1979, women had more options and more opportunities to earn a higher degree than a high school diploma. Also according to the research, only men's with bachelor degree or higher would have a higher real earning than women.

In 1963, Equal Pay Act was passed, the Civil Rights Act (1964), and Title IX (1972), all of these policies together support the increase of women LFP. The Equal Pay Act protects both men and women in order to against the discrimination on account of sex in the payments of wages. These policies also make sure that the labor market pay attention and obey the regulation regard of sex term. Nevertheless, the big move was the power of the pill (1960). Even though the pill was approved by FDA in 1960, the change was happened later of that year since every states need to settle their regulation and restriction. After the pill, women could extend their time for professional education career as well as the age of first marriage. According to the University of Chicago Press Journal, there was a big change in women's first marriage and their education career. More than 20% increase for first-year law students, fewer than 30% of young women would like to marriage before their 23th birthday. Most women interviewees answered that the change was because of the pill. It was nature while men keep working regardless their pay was up or down and were not affected by their wives. However, women, especially young women who were students, would be different. However, from 1980, married women were willing to work regardless their husband's employment situation.

Since 2000, women LFP was not changed or very slightly changed though other developed countries keep increasing. There are many factors could lead to this result. The U.S government was seen as weakness in "family-friendly policy". According to Claire Cain Miller, NYT, other rich countries such Denmark, Germany, Norway, etc. spending average of $14,000 annually for childcare while U.S government support only $500. In addition, a guaranteed spot in after-school care while U.S parents need to compete for a spot.

Men Labor Force Participation (LFP)

According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, men LFP decreased and maintained decreasing since 1950 with 86.4%, 79.7% in 1970, 76.4% in 1990, and 73.3% in 2005. Experts predict that this decrease could remain and higher over the year because of different policies such as the Social Security Act (1960). In addition, a decline in male education participation, age of marriage, the rise of substance abuse, and addicted to video game could lead to the decrease in Men LFP.

According to the article "Why are prime-age men vanishing from the labor force? " (Economic review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, first quarter 2018), author found that from 1996 to 2015, most men in the prime-age who only hold a high-school degree or associate's degree would have a nonparticipation rate much higher than who hold a advanced degree. This could be explained by the demand of middle-skilled labors during that period of time. During the Great Recession, in overall, the nonparticipation rate increased for everyone regardless their education level. However, the author tried to dig deeper and categorized men into 4 different groups: who do not have a high school diploma, who have a high school diploma, who have a associate's degree, and who have a bachelor's degree or higher. It was obvious that the greatest increase from the group with only a high school diploma.

The aging in U.S population also explained to the decrease in Men LFP. The median-age of male was increased from 34 years old to 37.2 years old. In addition, baby-boomer was increased which mean more people over 65 years old, less people who were in labor age. According to the 2020 Current Population Survey, most men reported that they were not able to work due to higher education, ill, or disability, however, this is a self-report. Regarding the Social Security Disability Program, there was 35% of recipients responded that their disability due to mental health disorder. Another 30% responded their disability correlated to musculoskeletal disorder, many of which are due to obesity.

The men LFPR tend to increase further after COVID-19. Experts said that there are many reasons could lead to this results. People within the age that about to retire would like to retire earlier, even though they are healthy, they would prefer to spend their time for family, hobbies, or voluntary. In addition, COVID-19 created a threat to most people, especially who have problem with their health before. Another reason could be many companies are trying to move their plant to different countries where could cut companies' costs and benefits. According to Science Advances, more than half of men in their 30s has a criminal history arrest. This could be another reason explains why men nonparticipation rate increases.

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance.

The updated data from U.S Census Bureau in September, 2022 does not change or slightly different when to compare with the same period last year. There are three factors that being discussed:


 * The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)
 * People with Health Insurance coverage
 * Household Income

The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). According to Congressional Research Service, SPM is a measure of economic deprivation. This tool help to collect, measure, and report the data of individuals, households, etc. that are living with lack of financial resources in order to reach a certain standards of living. People will be considered their poverty status based on their financial resources against the thresholds. Poverty thresholds are family size and composition. Those people with their financial resources are lower than thresholds, will be considered to be poor. In 2021, the official poverty rate was 11.6%, equal to 37.9 million of people in poverty, SPM was 7.8%, slightly decreased when compared with 9.2% in 2020 and 11.7% in 2019. SPM in 2021 was also the lowest rate since 2009.

Health Insurance Coverage. There are two sector, public and private insurance. Statistics from Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021, 13.5% of people aged 18-64 were insured, 39.5% using public insurance, and 60.4% using private insurance. Even though, private insurance coverage is common than public insurance coverage, and people typically change insurance type during the calendar year, in 2021 the percentage of using public insurance coverage is higher than private, when compared to 2020. The data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of adult aged from 18 to 64 that are insured tend to increase and related to households' income level. The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is divided to less than 100%, above 100% but less than 200%, and above 200%. The percentage of people from 18 to 64 that were insured fell and significantly decreased as the following 24.5%, 23.7%, and 8.4%.

Income. Similarly to SPM, there is not significantly change in income in 2021 when compared to 2020, $70,784 vs. $71,186. part-time employees have higher median earning than full-time employees about 4.1%. Despite the fact that total workers in both years are pretty much same, the status of employees tend to move from part-time employees to full-time employees in 2021.

Foreign-born workers

People who stay in the United States but was not born in the U.S is considered as foreign-born. In most of the cases, they are who were born in different countries, with parents were not U.S citizens. Hispanic makes almost haft of foreign-born workers in the labor market. According to the News Release from Bureau of Labor Statistics, foreign-born adds more 670,000 in 2021, this number was unchanged for the native-born. In term of gender, men foreign-born contributes to the market more than men native-born in 2021 with 76.8%, women foreign-born rate is lower to compare with women native-born at 56.6%. In term of median earning, foreign-born workers tend to be paid less than native-born workers, with weekly earning are $898 and $1,017, respectively.

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