See For Two-Job Workers, There Aren’t Enough Hours in a Day to Stay Afloat by Joe Barrett of The WSJ. Excerpts:
"“One story is that people are short of cash, and they need extra hours and the only way to pick up extra hours is by picking up a short-term job,” said Christopher Taber, chairman of the economics department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Another story is that it’s easier to work two jobs now than it was before.”
The emergence of the gig economy has made it easier for people to find second jobs driving for ride-share companies or delivering food, he said. The expansion of work-from-home jobs has also made it easier for some people to work two jobs with less commuting.
People who take on second jobs are more likely to be divorced or widowed, government data shows. In interviews, many second-job holders said they balance a full-time job with a second part-time gig on nights or weekends.
“It’s always been people who disproportionately are in more precarious employment situations, like minorities are overrepresented among multiple jobholders, and that’s true now as much as it was prepandemic,” said Emma Harrington, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia."
See How Immigration Remade the U.S. Labor Force by Paul Kiernan of The WSJ. Excerpts:
"Since the end of 2020, more than nine million people have migrated to the U.S., after subtracting those who have left, coming both legally and illegally, according to estimates and projections from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s nearly as many as the number that came in the previous decade. Immigration has lifted U.S. population growth to almost 1.2% a year, the highest since the early 1990s. Without it, the U.S. population would be growing 0.2% a year because of declining birthrates"
"Less than 30%, or 2.6 million, are what the CBO counts as “lawful permanent residents,”"
"Of foreigners who arrived since 2020, 78% are between the ages of 16 and 64, compared with 60% of those born in the U.S"
"That helps explain why they are also more likely to be in the labor force. Of recent immigrants age 16 or older, 68%—the participation rate—are either working or looking for a job, compared with 62% for U.S.-born Americans."
"Labor-force participation for foreigners who arrived from 2004 through 2019 is a lofty 73%, according to census data."
"while most recent immigrants are able to work, many aren’t ready for high-skilled jobs: The census data show immigrants who arrived since the start of 2020 are more than twice as likely to lack a high-school diploma as U.S.-born workers.
Perhaps counterintuitively, recent immigrants are also slightly more likely to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher than the U.S. born. The data don’t make it clear why."
"Immigrants who have arrived since the start of 2020 face higher jobless rates than the broader population. Unemployment for recent immigrants averaged 8.2% between May and July"
"Recent immigrants tend to earn less than U.S.-born workers because of their lower level of education, lack of English, and in some cases because they are working without permission. They might also compete with existing workers with less education and put downward pressure on their wages, too. Through these channels, the surge in immigration could weigh slightly on overall wages and productivity in the near term, according to the CBO.
However, the drag fades over time as migrants gain experience, and those with college degrees contribute to innovation"
See As Generation X Approaches Retirement, Reality Still Bites by Hannah Miao of The WSJ. Excerpts:
"The median household net worth of Gen Xers between 45 and 54 years old was about $250,000 in 2022, about 7% lower than that of baby boomers at the same age in 2007, according to inflation-adjusted Federal Reserve data. That was the only age group that experienced a drop in median wealth over the 15-year period."
"The roughly 65 million Americans in Gen X are sometimes referred to as the “forgotten generation,” sandwiched between the larger and louder baby boomer and millennial generations. They are also called the “latchkey generation,” often coming home from school as children to an empty house. Goldman Sachs Asset Management in a recent report called Gen X the “‘401(k) experiment’ generation.”
For decades, employers often supported loyal workers in old age through traditional pensions with set payouts for life. The advent of the 401(k) system pushed the responsibility on to the individual—and Gen X was caught squarely in the transition.
“Gen X is the first generation where they were mostly expected to figure out their retirement on their own,” said Jeremy Horpedahl, an economics professor at the University of Central Arkansas and director of the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics.
The early champions of the 401(k) never thought that it would become the dominant way most Americans save for retirement. It is named for a line in the tax code changed in 1978 that gave executives a tax-free way to defer compensation from bonuses or stock options. Human-resources executives and economists jumped on the 401(k) as a way to encourage saving for rank-and-file employees.
By the mid-1980s, the number of active participants in defined-contribution retirement plans—such as 401(k)s—overtook those in defined-benefit plans—such as traditional pension plans—in the private sector. Now, private pensions are rare.
When Gen Xers entered the workforce, the 401(k) was a new concept. Features such as automatically enrolling employees in a workplace plan and automatically increasing contributions every year didn’t become commonplace until later.
Other common private retirement savings tools were also introduced in the last half-century. The individual retirement account—a tax-deferred investment vehicle—was authorized in 1974, while the Roth IRA—funded with posttax money, but tax-free when withdrawn—was established in 1997.
Gen Xers between 45 and 54 years old had a median account balance of roughly $60,000 in defined-contribution retirement plans at Vanguard Group in 2023, according to the firm. For most Americans, that is well below the target some financial experts recommend of having roughly six times one’s salary saved for retirement by age 50."
"Soaring tuition costs, sky-high rents and other inflationary pressures for Gen Z are also Gen X’s problem. Many Gen Xers have forked over tens of thousands of dollars for their children to attend college. Young people are also increasingly living with parents, or relying on them for financial support, well into adulthood."
See One Husband Is Enough: Women in Their 60s See No Need to Remarry by Harriet Torry of The WSJ. Excerpts:
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