That’s only a tiny slice of the story.

It doesn’t count the people who have opted out of the workforce.

It doesn’t count the job insecuroty of the gig economy. Or the people with terrible conditions.

It actually underscores the fact that both sexes flooded the labor pool in the last few decades, automation increased and wages got depressed due to all these factors.

USSR also had near-total employment, for men and women, way earlier than USA did. And ironically, the rent cost a ton less. But people overall couldn’t afford that much.

Your grandfather could have supported an entire family on one man’s paycheck, and paid for an entire house. Today, millennials onwards can’t afford any of that. The generation of adults with the least savings in probably a century.

But, as I said, we still have it amaing. Medical advances, technology like air conditioning, electricity and so on. The Internet spreads so much knowledge around the world. I’m just saying that the remaining problems are often rooted in economic issues, more than a rise in “systemic X ism”

Agree with all that. I disagree only that demand for labor has decreased, and near-full employment is my evidence for that. Many jobs are shitty, but someone is demanding the labor.

Well, I guess what I am trying to say is that more people are asked to do work, but less work, and paid less for it too, adjusted for inflation.

Gig economy and short stints at jobs are an example of how little employers really value their labor force, as opposed to the “company man” who worked for decades and got a pension.

> It doesn’t count the people who have opted out of the workforce.

Not the headline number, but in the US you certainly can find this data if you want it, in the U4, U5, and U6 rates:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U4RATE

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U5RATE

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U6RATE

It only goes back to 1994, but these measures are currently all at or near the lows over the that period.