The Tight US Labor Market: Missing Hours, Missing Workers

https://www.nber.org/digest/20232/tight-us-labor-market-missing-hours-missing-workers
SOCIETY
Issue #330
5 Feb 2023
2 years after the ‘labour market paradox’ of the missing millions of workers has first coined, I think we are getting a better idea as to an explanation. Like any complex phenomena, there are multiple reasons for why labour force participation is low, but the leading contenders seem to be directly Covid (deaths, long term illness), elevated candidate expectations and, according to this intriguing research, early retirement due to rising house prices which workers use as pension.