Virginia’s workforce is losing young people and gaining older people.
Something has happened to Virginia’s workforce over the last 20 years: It’s gotten grayer. That is to say young people have declining labor force participation and older people have increasing labor force participation.
Leslie Stratton at Virginia Commonwealth University says young people are staying out of the workforce to invest in their education.
“Most of that is driven by increasing school enrollment," she explains. "And, with the increased longevity they’re making more investments in education because they expect they can reap the rewards for that investment over a longer lifetime, which could translate into a higher labor force participation rate for older persons.”
And those older people are increasingly worried about their financial situation.
Frank Shafroth at George Mason University says previous generations often had many grandchildren to take care of them. But people these days aren’t having as many kids, so there are fewer grandchildren to lean on.
“That’s changing. It’s changed profoundly just over the last three generations," says Shafroth. "So I think it means more and more people today in Virginia and other places need to think about what happens when I can’t really take care of myself any longer?”
In the last 20 years, the labor force participation for Virginians over the age of 55 has increased about 20%. In that same time, the labor force participation for Virginians younger than the age of 20 has declined by 30%.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
