Hiring Improves for Some

The Wall Street Journal recently reporting an uptick in hiring with almost 600,000 new people joining the US workforce in October.

• 1 million more people were employed in November than in October.
• The labor force participation rate rose to 61.8%, highest since March 2020 when the pandemic started.
• The labor force participation rate for women, 25-54 years old, rose to 75.6%, the highest since the start of the pandemic. This could indicate that child-care issue may no longer be deterring women from working.

Another hopeful sign is that people are starting to look at new careers. Cindy Ortiz started a job as a CNA after she lost her job at a call center. She was retrained by Goodwill of Southern Nevada.

Older workers, those 55 and up, are still holding back. A little more than 40 percent of this demographic were in the labor force in February 2020, but only 38.4 percent are today. That figure is identical to the level last May, when the economy was largely shut down. Almost two years into the pandemic, they are still not coming back to work. Some over 62 have signed on to Social Security.