Where are all the workers?

The Fed keeps trying to slow the economy down to reduce inflation. But the GDP keeps growing, people keep spending, job keep getting created, and employers keep saying they are having trouble finding workers. Maybe the problem is in the schools. Actually it maybe what isn’t in the schools - students. Home schooling has increased rapidly since COVID. Maybe the missing workers are parents teaching their kids at home.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/homeschooling-growth-data-by-district/

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Nope. If the parents were that smart, they would have already taught their kids how to tell nonsense from truth in many instances. Thus, having their kids in school would be a GOOD idea–because they would get exposed to different ideas/concepts to help them become even smarter.

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Or the type of school, i.e., trade vs. college. I still hear Mike Rowe saying how there are millions of unfilled trade jobs every year. Where that PhD in pre-Columbian art history is asking “do you want fries with that”.

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The OP means parents are home-schooling instead of working a job. That is why there is a labor shortage.

Yes there are probably a couple of those. However Liberal Arts majors median income is $54,000, compared to $63,000 for all college graduates, so the difference isn’t huge.

Home schooling is up since the pandemic, no doubt, but it has declined since last year. I’d wager a lot of people liked their life when they weren’t working and are letting the spouse carry the load for a while. Or are home schooling. Or have found some other way to pass the time. It’ll settle out eventually. It always does.

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I am meeting a lot of people who have educational collectives. These are conservative religious-based folks against vaccines etc…both parents are working but the collective has some parents teaching. They are getting more efficient.

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My wife works in workforce development. There aren’t even remotely enough people entering the skilled trades. And it is expected to get way worse in the next few years. So, trades good.

But I just saw this today: Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. It is fairly short and (to me) interesting. It turns out, those with college degree have triple the net worth compared to those without.

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The article mentions those co-op arrangements.

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