Have you read the report that Gov. Holcomb's Workforce Cabinet recently issued with a number of recommendations of what the state government should do to address the current shortage of STEM workers in our state? One of them is that the state should offer to buy a nice set of clothes for high school students to wear when they go for job interviews! Would be interested in your reaction to this report. You can find it by searching for: Recommendations to Tackle Employer Talent Challenges and Accelerate the State's Economy
Jeffrey. I read it. Perhaps the most charitable comment I could make is that it failed to acknowledge any of the key issues affecting the state's labor force. Both deeply disappointing, and wholly unsurprising.
The labor force participation rate nationally for college graduates hovers in the 72% range. For HS grads it is in the 53-55% range. Some of these people will remain stay at home parents, some will be involved in agricultural employment (a very tiny share, probably well under 1%). The deployment of most of them is a mystery. We just haven't seen this type of large unexplained departure from working by a group in modern times.
My estimates of the shadow economy (done 20+ years ago) are that they are counter-cyclical and average about 10%. So, a fairly large share of these workers might be engaged in informal (largely legal) work. This could be in child care, construction, or other odd jobs.
Have you read the report that Gov. Holcomb's Workforce Cabinet recently issued with a number of recommendations of what the state government should do to address the current shortage of STEM workers in our state? One of them is that the state should offer to buy a nice set of clothes for high school students to wear when they go for job interviews! Would be interested in your reaction to this report. You can find it by searching for: Recommendations to Tackle Employer Talent Challenges and Accelerate the State's Economy
Jeffrey. I read it. Perhaps the most charitable comment I could make is that it failed to acknowledge any of the key issues affecting the state's labor force. Both deeply disappointing, and wholly unsurprising.
So what happened to all those high school graduates? Unemployed, joined the "informal" economy, left the state, left the worforce?
Dave:
The labor force participation rate nationally for college graduates hovers in the 72% range. For HS grads it is in the 53-55% range. Some of these people will remain stay at home parents, some will be involved in agricultural employment (a very tiny share, probably well under 1%). The deployment of most of them is a mystery. We just haven't seen this type of large unexplained departure from working by a group in modern times.
My estimates of the shadow economy (done 20+ years ago) are that they are counter-cyclical and average about 10%. So, a fairly large share of these workers might be engaged in informal (largely legal) work. This could be in child care, construction, or other odd jobs.
If the Substack software allows updates, it would be excellent to include sources for these data sets.
Ken, thanks, I just added the citations and some supplementary data at the end.