The Myriad Reasons People Don’t Work
There’s a new report that puts the unemployment rate in a glaring new light.
For the past several years, those filing for unemployment benefits have been about 4.5 to 4.6 percent of the population, but that doesn’t tell the full story of how many people aren’t working.
Of the 227 million people in the U.S. 15 years or older in the first quarter of 2006, about 79 million had not worked at a paid job in the preceding four months, says the Reasons People Do Not Work: 2006 report. That’s over one-third of the U.S. population 16 years of age or older who don’t want to work, don’t have jobs, and/or can’t find work.
While unemployment has stayed around 4.5 percent for the last few years, that’s only a number that describes people who are working, have lost their jobs, and are actively seeking unemployment benefits. The new survey includes the homemakers, volunteers, retirees, job hunters, full-time students and other nonworkers who were not working, worked only part of the time, or were laid off and couldn’t find work, for four months prior to their interviews.
The latest report tracks data collected from October 2005 through April 2006; and it reveals some interesting household economics between not working and respondents’ age.
When respondents were asked “What is the main reason you did not work at a job or business in the last four months?”, their answers ranged broadly:
Reason: Age 15 to 20 Age 20 to 64
Unable to find work 4.3% 7.9%
Laid off 1.7% 3.5%
Chronic illness or disability 14.7% 25%
Temporary illness or injury 1.7% 3.2%
Pregnancy/childbirth 0.8% 1.5%
Retired 13.7% 37.9%
Going to school 19.1% 9.6%
Taking care of children, others 13.2% 26%
Not interested in working or other 3.6% 5.3%
Other 2.9% 4.3%
While the majority of nonworking teenagers (90 percent) and those aged 20 to 24 listed their reason for not working as “going to school,” about 44 percent of nonworkers in the prime reproductive and family-rearing ages 10-24, 25-44, and 45-54 listed taking care of children and others as their reasons for not working. For nonworkers 45 years and older, health and retirement were the dominant reasons for not working.
“Chronic illness and/or disability” was the most common reason among males between 20 to 64 years of age for not working. Twenty percent of this group were “laid off”or “unable to find work”, and 14 percent were “going to school” to pursue advanced degrees or otherwise update their skills.
For women age 20 to 64 years, “taking care of children or others” (39 percent) was followed by “chronic illness” (21 percent) as reasons for not working.
Race also told a story. Blacks were the largest number who were “unable to find work” (14.4 percent) and who suffer “chronic injury or illness,” 36.7 percent. Hispanics were most likely to report taking care of children and others (40.3 percent) and least likely to use “going to school” as reasons for not working. Whites were least interested in working (6.6 percent), and were least likely to use pregnancy (1.2 percent) as a reason for not working.
Those with graduate-level or professional degrees were least likely to say they were “unable to find work,” or use chronic (10.1 percent) or temporary illness (1.2 percent) as reasons for not working, and they were most likely to say they were retired (30.9 percent) as reason for not working. People with less than a high school diploma were most likely to use chronic illness (36 percent) as a reason for not working.
by Blanche Evans
