Minnesota added 17,400 jobs in October, most in 2022

[progree]

1. That's great. I hope some of those are bus drivers --

In October, my entire route 705b was eliminated because of a driver shortage. Now I have to walk 1.5 miles to catch the 705a, a 30 minute walk.

Additionally, route 755, which only runs during a 2-hour period in the morning and a 2-hour period in the afternoon, is being cut from 9 trips each way to 6 trips each way on Dec 3. Big cuts elsewhere, again due to the worsening driver shortage.

It's impossible to go somewhere in the morning (busses run only in 2 early morning hours) and do some shopping or errand, and then come back the same morning. The last bus to return home in the morning is 7:12 AM -- before any store opens!. One has to wait around and do something until the afternoon to get a bus to return home. So it's really not a substitute for most purposes.

(No way to go in the afternoon and get back, unless it's a very short errand or shopping trip).

I'm not way out in the sticks. I'm just 4.2 miles west of the IDS Tower. So its not like I'm whining about the lack of farmhouse-to-farmhouse service.

Others are noting a severe shortage of childcare and eldercare workers.

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Nationally, the labor force participation rate has been dwindling from a high point of about 67.3% in 2000 to 62.2% now. (It was 62.2% in January, so there hasn't been any progress in that all year).

Meanwhile the population of elderly (such as me) needing more and more service (me not yet but soon) grows.

Labor force participation rate: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

Labor force in thousands: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11000000



Anyway this is the dark side of the labor picture as well as wages not keeping up with prices on a 12 month basis (although in the past 4 months they have been with a sharp downturn in inflation).

Thanks for the post