The labor force participation rate dropped because people stopped looking for jobs. Economists call this a trend. Normal people call this Tuesday.
Here's what happened. Someone applied to 300 jobs. Got zero callbacks. Applied to 300 more. Got one interview. Bombed it because the hiring manager asked where they see themselves in five years and they said "employed." Revolutionary concept. The market wore them down. That's the quote. The market wore me down. Like the market is a geological force eroding sedimentary rock over millennia instead of a bunch of HR departments using software that rejects you for not including the exact keyword "synergy" in your cover letter.
This affects the labor force participation rate. You know what that is? It's the percentage of people working or looking for work. Drop out of both categories and you vanish from the statistic entirely. Economists lose track of you. You become a ghost. The Bureau of Labor Statistics holds a séance once a month but you don't show up because you're busy not giving a f*ck anymore.
Candidates gave up after relentless job searches. Relentless. That's the word they used. Like they were being chased by a slasher in a horror film except the slasher is a recruiter who keeps scheduling phone screens and then never calling. The final girl survives by simply logging off LinkedIn forever.
The participation rate declined. Analysts scrambled to explain it. Was it early retirements? Generous unemployment benefits? Long COVID? Nope. Turns out people just quit the entire concept of employment after the 500th automated rejection email thanked them for their interest and wished them luck in their future endeavors.
The future endeavor is apparently sitting this one out until the heat death of the universe.
Photo by Egor Komarov on Unsplash
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