Why Are Workers Staying Out of the U.S. Labor Force?

"To conclude, our analysis of the out-of-labor-force activities in the CPS reveals that shifts toward retirement and home care/family care have driven the shortfall in labor force participation. This squares well with anecdotal evidence. Our findings also suggest that the shifts are not limited to a certain age range for retirement or a certain gender for home care/family care."

Well, people wanted boomers to get out of the way and it looks like they're getting (or got) their wish. Unless/until daycare resumes as-before, the percentage of women in the workforce will be reduced as they tend to be the child caregiver in most cases. There was a hell of a run-up in the market, so anybody who could take the money and run might just have done so (the early retirees mentioned in the article?). Birth rate's low for boomer replacement and it's a multi-decade process.

I'm sure there's also some residual covid-fear keeping service workers from returning. There's also asshole-fear doing this, as the civility of the marketplace hasn't survived covid all that well.