The % of 25-54 year olds employed was 80.4% in Dec, after being 80.7% in Nov. (and was 80.9% in both June and July of 2023); Average hours worked fell slightly

One weakness of the unemployment rate is that if people drop out of the labor force they cannot be counted as an unemployed person and the unemployment rate goes down. They are no longer actively seeking work and it might be because they are discouraged workers. The lower unemployment rate can be misleading in this case. People dropping out of the labor force might indicate a weak labor market.

We could look at the employment to population ratio instead, since that includes those not in the labor force. But that includes everyone over 16 and that means that senior citizens are in the group but many of them have retired. The more that retire, the lower this ratio would be and that might be misleading. It would not necessarily mean the labor market is weak.

But we have this ratio for people age 25-54 (which also eliminates many college age people who might not be looking for work).

The % of 25-4 year olds employed was 80.4% in Dec, after being 80.7% in Nov.  It was 80.6% in Jan. 2020 just before Covid. The 80.9% in June was the highest since the 80.9% in April, 2001. I hope the fact that it fell 0.5 percentage points in five months is not a bad sign for the economy.

It was 80.6% in Jan. 2020 and 69.6% in April 2020.  Click here to see the BLS data. 

It was 79.875% for all of 2022 & 80.667% for all of 2023.

The unemployment rate was 3.7% in both Nov. & Dec. The unemployment rate was 3.6% for all of  2022 as well as 2023.  Click here to go to that data

The labor force participation fell from 62.8% to 62.5%. The labor force participation rate was 62.2% for all of 2022 and was 62.6%. in 2023.

60.476% of the adult population was employed in Nov. (that is people 16 years old and older). 

60.145% of the adult population was employed in Dec. So we had a slight increase from Nov. to Dec.

60.0% of the adult population was employed in 2022 (that is people 16 years old and older). 

60.3% of the adult population was employed in 2023. So we had a slight increase.

Here is the timeline graph of the percentage of 25-54 year olds employed since 2013.

Now since 1948

Now hours worked. This comes from the St. Louis FED. See Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private. It was 34.4 in Nov. & 34.3 in Dec.

Economics in Don Quixote, Part 4: Governor Sancho Panza Regulates The Economy

Sancho Panza was knight errant Don Quixote's squire. A duke and duchess named him governor of an insula (which means island but the place Panza was governor of was not an island). The duke and duchess were playing tricks on Don Quixote & Sancho Panza and his governorship was not likely to last. But Sancho resigned after just ten days anyway. Sancho was an illiterate farmer so he was an unlikely candidate to be a governor.

Don Quixote wrote a letter to Sancho advising him on how to be a good governor and Sancho responded. I have excerpts from those first. Then an excerpt with regulations that Sancho declared, which involve many price controls. These are described as good. There is no discussion of how price controls can cause problems like shortages. Also, "market-women" are called the worst people.

These excerpts are from THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE, Vol. II (CHAPTER LI. OF THE PROGRESS OF SANCHO’S GOVERNMENT, AND OTHER SUCH ENTERTAINING MATTERS): 

"DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA’S LETTER TO SANCHO PANZA, GOVERNOR OF THE ISLAND OF BARATARIA. 

"Visit the gaols, the slaughter-houses, and the market-places; for the presence of the governor is of great importance in such places; it comforts the prisoners who are in hopes of a speedy release, it is the bugbear of the butchers who have then to give just weight, and it is the terror of the market-women for the same reason."

SANCHO PANZA’S LETTER TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.

"I have visited the market-places, as your worship advises me, and yesterday I found a stall-keeper selling new hazel nuts and proved her to have mixed a bushel of old empty rotten nuts with a bushel of new; I confiscated the whole for the children of the charity-school, who will know how to distinguish them well enough, and I sentenced her not to come into the market-place for a fortnight; they told me I did bravely. I can tell your worship it is commonly said in this town that there are no people worse than the market-women, for they are all barefaced, unconscionable, and impudent, and I can well believe it from what I have seen of them in other towns."

"The secretary sealed the letter, and immediately dismissed the courier; and those who were carrying on the joke against Sancho putting their heads together arranged how he was to be dismissed from the government. Sancho spent the afternoon in drawing up certain ordinances relating to the good government of what he fancied the island; and he ordained that there were to be no provision hucksters in the State, and that men might import wine into it from any place they pleased, provided they declared the quarter it came from, so that a price might be put upon it according to its quality, reputation, and the estimation it was held in; and he that watered his wine, or changed the name, was to forfeit his life for it. He reduced the prices of all manner of shoes, boots, and stockings, but of shoes in particular, as they seemed to him to run extravagantly high. He established a fixed rate for servants’ wages, which were becoming recklessly exorbitant. He laid extremely heavy penalties upon those who sang lewd or loose songs either by day or night. He decreed that no blind man should sing of any miracle in verse, unless he could produce authentic evidence that it was true, for it was his opinion that most of those the blind men sing are trumped up, to the detriment of the true ones. He established and created an alguacil [sherrif] of the poor, not to harass them, but to examine them and see whether they really were so; for many a sturdy thief or drunkard goes about under cover of a make-believe crippled limb or a sham sore. In a word, he made so many good rules that to this day they are preserved there, and are called The constitutions of the great governor Sancho Panza."

Related posts:

Economics in Don Quixote, Part 1 (the "precautionary motive" for demanding money)

Economics in Don Quixote, Part 2 ("primitive communism") 

Economics in Don Quixote, Part 3 (knights never paid for lodging or anything else plus some Schumpeter)

Life is full of tradeoffs: it costs money to keep chemicals out of our water systems

See Who Pays to Get Forever Chemicals Out of Drinking Water? It Could Be You: Officials say settlements with 3M and DuPont won’t cover all of the costs of building new filtration systems by John Keilman and Kris Maher of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Water systems are spending millions of dollars to filter out PFAS, the long-lasting compounds commonly known as forever chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and other health problems.

Earlier this year 3M MMM, DuPont and two other companies agreed to proposed class-action settlements of contamination claims for up to $13.7 billion, but some water providers are already passing the cleanup cost on to customers.

Communities including Hawthorne, N.J., Wellesley, Mass., and Wausau, Wis., have boosted their water rates by 13% to more than 50% after the discovery of PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, led them to build new filtration systems or buy water from other sources."

"In recent years hundreds of municipalities have sued PFAS manufacturers, alleging that the companies knew that the chemicals would contaminate aquifers. The companies, while seeking to settle the litigation, say PFAS haven’t been shown to cause health problems at the levels detected in drinking water.

Some lawyers have said the settlements won’t come close to paying the full cost of PFAS treatment, pointing to a study from the American Water Works Association that estimated the nationwide capital costs at $47 billion. The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies has said treating drinking water could cost up to $6 billion annually."

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More Proof That Tradeoffs Are Everywhere: Blind People Don't Like The New, Quiet Hybrid Cars (2007)

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Life is full of tradeoffs, the case of federal renters assistance (2021)

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