Some of these statistical figures, like the "core" consumer price index, are definitely a tinted view thru rose colored glasses. The Core CPI figure excludes prices of food and energy -things everyone has to buy on a frequent basis just to survive. Unemployment figures that are reported to the public in the news are deliberately vague. The figure says nothing about quality of employment. Many millions of Americans are under-employed, barely making enough to survive. Good quality jobs give workers enough discretionary income to fuel our economy in a positive manner and to support our tax base.
There are signs people who intended to leave the workforce and/or retire are getting dragged back into working because of spiking living costs. There is news Social Security benefits checks may increase by as much as 10.5% in 2023 via the annual cost of living allowance (COLA) rate. But those gains may be offset by Medicare Part B premiums. This year the COLA rate was 5.9%, but Medicare Part B premiums were jacked up by 14.5%.
There is plenty of motivation for people to get out of the workforce, especially if they've been working in service industry jobs. That's because some customers are just unbelievably rude, cruel jerks. Our nation has a serious anger management problem. In March some guy fired a gun into a Subway restaurant in Atlanta, hitting two female employees, one of whom died, all because there was too much mayonnaise on his sandwich. Thankfully incidents like that are rare. But physical assaults and verbal abuse are much more common. If a person is financially able to retire it makes perfect sense to quit that service industry job to get out of a negative environment.
