Weak economic recovery has been a ‘boom for the grannies and a bust for the kids’

An analysis of recent jobs figures at Investor.com reveals a disturbing development: the biggest beneficiaries from the economic recovery are Boomers, while everyone else is getting the shaft.

Among those 55-and-up, the employment-to-population ratio barely dipped even in the depth of recession and is now higher than at the end of 2007. The ratio among those 25-54 remains about 4 percentage points lower than before the recession started.

Older workers are staying on the job longer, in part to counter lackluster performance of retirement accounts and housing values.  Meanwhile, the high unemployment rates of Generation X and Millennials could help explain the rise of  young adults living with their parents.

Long-Term Trend

The trend of falling employment as a share of the 54-and-under population and rising employment among those 55 and up has been in force for more than a decade.

See this chart for the labor participation rates going back to 1948.

Walter Russell Mead on the politics of this generational job divide

… it’s ironic to say the least that a president swept into power on a tsunami of young voter support has presided over a boom for the grannies and a bust for the kids. Logically, President Obama should expect to do somewhat better among senior citizens and worse among young people than in his first campaign — but logic often goes one way and politics another.

Related articles

• Are Baby Boomers Stealing Jobs from the Young? (Part 1) (businessinsider.com)