August 08, 2015
Paul Krugman makes a good point comparing the economy’s performance under President Reagan and Obama. He shows the path of unemployment was actually worse under Reagan than Obama. This is to show there is no real basis for praising the Reagan record. Krugman then concludes the piece by saying, “anyway, I’m surprised that this chart isn’t more widely discussed.”
Actually there is a good reason the record is not more widely discussed. The employment to population ratio is still much lower now than it was before the downturn. This is true even if we restrict the analysis to prime age (ages 25-54) workers to reduce the impact of demographic change.
Employment to Population Ratio: Prime Age Workers
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If we focus on the EPOP rather than unemployment rates, then the economy still has a long way to go before it recovers. Since it is implausible that millions of prime age workers suddenly decided they don’t feel like working, we need to do much more to get back to something like full employment and a labor market that is tight enough for workers to achieve wage gains.
For this reason many of us are focusing on emphasizing the problems with the labor market rather than trumpeting the comparisons with Reagan, although Krugman is right that the Reagan record is nothing to boast about.
Comments