First, it could just be a sampling effect. Someone put this together, and they only had so much time. These may simply be the dates they happened to find, with no real relation to how public sentiment changed over time.
But if it really is true that on average, fewer people were lamenting “no one wants to work anymore” from 1981-1999, what could have caused this?
Two ideas:
This era really was the peak of America’s labor participation rate. The Boomers, the largest generation ever relative to total population, were at the peak of their careers. They were raising kids, putting kids through college, living the Boomer lifestyle, and saving for retirement. And they had to work to pay for all of that. This is a likely factor.
I believe this also may have been an era of a high water mark of undocumented workers coming across the border. Mexico was at its peak of labor surplus, and the US hadn’t really started putting up the walls yet, figurative and literal. ICE was founded in 2003.
For a variety of reasons, this really was the high water mark of America’s labor participation rate. Again, this could just be a sampling effect. But if it is real, I can imagine some good reasons for it. And when labor is abundant, it becomes cheap. And when labor is cheap, fewer bosses will be lamenting the lack of workers willing to accept terrible jobs for low pay.
What happened in 1990 to deserve the 20 year gap in complaints?
Hmm, time to
speculate! hypothesize!First, it could just be a sampling effect. Someone put this together, and they only had so much time. These may simply be the dates they happened to find, with no real relation to how public sentiment changed over time.
But if it really is true that on average, fewer people were lamenting “no one wants to work anymore” from 1981-1999, what could have caused this?
Two ideas:
This era really was the peak of America’s labor participation rate. The Boomers, the largest generation ever relative to total population, were at the peak of their careers. They were raising kids, putting kids through college, living the Boomer lifestyle, and saving for retirement. And they had to work to pay for all of that. This is a likely factor.
I believe this also may have been an era of a high water mark of undocumented workers coming across the border. Mexico was at its peak of labor surplus, and the US hadn’t really started putting up the walls yet, figurative and literal. ICE was founded in 2003.
For a variety of reasons, this really was the high water mark of America’s labor participation rate. Again, this could just be a sampling effect. But if it is real, I can imagine some good reasons for it. And when labor is abundant, it becomes cheap. And when labor is cheap, fewer bosses will be lamenting the lack of workers willing to accept terrible jobs for low pay.