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-   -   Opioid addiction reason for lower workforce participation? (http://www.politicalchat.org/showthread.php?t=11969)

whell 09-11-2017 08:13 AM

Opioid addiction reason for lower workforce participation?
 
So, in posts during the last year or two we've debated the reason that the U6 workforce participation number was rising. Here's a reason that I'm pretty sure we didn't discuss:

The nearly fourfold increase in opioid prescriptions from 1999 to 2015 could account for 20 percent of the overall decline of men in the U.S. workforce during that time period, according to the report, “Where Have All the Workers Gone? An Inquiry into the Decline of the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate,” by Princeton University economist Alan B. Krueger.

In 2015 alone, the opioid and prescription painkiller addiction epidemic resulted in 33,000 American deaths, particularly impacting rural areas in the Northeast, Appalachia, and the Midwest, according to the report.

“Labor force participation has fallen more in areas where relatively more opioid pain medication is prescribed, causing the problem of depressed labor force participation and the opioid crisis to become intertwined,” Krueger writes.

BlueStreak 09-11-2017 08:20 AM

I see you're still an ass.

finnbow 09-11-2017 09:01 AM

I've read that it is definitely an issue because in certain parts of the country, employers who demand pre-employment drug screening are having a hell of a time finding clean, qualified candidates. In many cases, the only clean & qualified people are immigrants.

whell 09-11-2017 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStreak (Post 361080)
I see you're still an ass.

...and you're still a schmuck. Now that we've got that cleared up, care to make a substantive comment to this thread?

whell 09-11-2017 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by finnbow (Post 361081)
I've read that it is definitely an issue because in certain parts of the country, employers who demand pre-employment drug screening are having a hell of a time finding clean, qualified candidates. In many cases, the only clean & qualified people are immigrants.

It's amazing to me that this could account for a "20% overall decline". Here in MI, where the opioid addiction issue is supposedly among the worst, we've seen an improving labor participation rate.

http://spartanideas.msu.edu/2017/04/...united-states/

Have to wonder how accurate this suggestion is.

icenine 09-11-2017 11:10 AM

Perhaps the lower workforce participation is causing the opioid crisis.

The real culprit may have been Big Pharma pushing Oxycontin into clinics all across America for profit reasons; there is evidence that many opioid users got hooked on Oxycontin first and then moved over to dirt cheap heroin from Mexico once the former drug became too expensive and/or unavailable.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-oxycontin-part2/

finnbow 09-11-2017 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whell (Post 361084)
It's amazing to me that this could account for a "20% overall decline". Here in MI, where the opioid addiction issue is supposedly among the worst, we've seen an improving labor participation rate.

http://spartanideas.msu.edu/2017/04/...united-states/

Have to wonder how accurate this suggestion is.

In most metro areas of the US, if you are willing to get an education or training, stay off drugs, show up at work reliably, and are willing to go to where the work is, there is ample work. But many white working class, as well as inner-city residents, aren't willing to do these things that would provide them gainful employment.

barbara 09-11-2017 02:06 PM

I've been trying to fill four positions and have had about seven or eight recruitments so far.
No one can pass the drug test.

Others in my department have the same problem.
I offer no suggestion as to why this is. I just know that is the experience I and others in my department have had.

Pio1980 09-11-2017 02:12 PM

Why the prescriptions, and how is this not a self inflicted problem if they aren't necessary?

Chicks 09-11-2017 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pio1980 (Post 361102)
Why the prescriptions, and how is this not a self inflicted problem if they aren't necessary?

One of the few things Rush Limbaugh has first hand experience with. I wonder if he ever discusses it with his idiot listeners, many of whom surely are among the afflicted? He could actually do some good for a change!


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