4 Takeaways From A 30-Year-Long Labor Study

How did the labor force change in the last three decades?

Thanks to a new report by the Employee Benefits Research Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, we have some answers.

Labor participation for those 55 and older increased sharply between 1991 and 2019 and steadily declined for those between the ages of 25 and 54, according to information dug up from U.S. Census Bureau archives.

The portion of older people in the workforce is not related to an increasing number of elders working, but, rather due to the fact that aging Baby Boomers are continuing to work.

Here’s what else you need to know:

• The share of women in the workforce increased 6.1% between 1975 and 1999, but then remained stagnant in the following two decades, reaching 47.2% in 2020. For younger individuals there’s more parity: labor participation reached near-gender equilibrium for those between the ages of 16 and 24.
• Black workers have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. While labor participation rates between whites and Blacks had nearly closed in 2019, Blacks experienced the most significant decline in work participation due to the pandemic in 2020.
• While the decline in the number of employed males was slightly larger than that of females, the percentage of females dropping from the labor market was much higher.
• The share of the labor force of those 55 and older will continue to grow in the near future and then begin receding in the long-term as the next generation of workers — those between 35 and 44 — occupies a larger share of the workforce.