Dollars and Hours: Stats Worth Contemplating for Labor Day
Since economic shifts are inevitable, why not aspire to multiple vocations?
We are just weeks away from the first Monday in September when we have a federal holiday to acknowledge the contributions of labor to our country and culture. It’s also a time to consider where we stand personally in the economy, especially given the downs and ups the public has felt since pandemic shutdowns and re-openings.
The national unemployment rate was low as of July, with a rate of 3.5 percent for the overall population. The jobless rate was even lower for those ages 65 and over — let’s hear it for experienced earners — at 2.7 percent. Incidentally, the government also expects that more workers ages 65 and up will stay employed and account for just over 9 percent of the workforce by 2031.
It may be even more interesting, especially for workforce veterans, to look at some figures that usually don’t get as much attention — but make you think about how you spend your week.
· $33.74 per hour was the average hourly pay for private, non-farm employees in July. We’re much more likely to see help-wanted signs in our local stores posting starting hourly wages of $15 or so. But the pay of experienced workers, those in higher paying fields, and those with supervisory duties also counts toward the average hourly pay, which is tracked and calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For hourly workers in manufacturing and construction, and service-industry workers who do not supervise others, the average was $28.96.
· $31.80 per hour is the “Value of Volunteer Time” currently, according to the Independent Sector and Do Good Initiative, organizations that serve the nonprofit sector. This reflects the value of every hour you spend doing unpaid work for nonprofits such as food pantries or animal shelters; Independent Sector notes that the figure is highly influenced by the prevailing level of private-sector pay. Why? Nonprofits draw volunteers from the same population bases as businesses. This year the value of volunteer time climbed by more than 6 percent as private wages grew.
· Approximately 15 million is the number of self-employed individuals in the U.S. workforce currently, and they account for about 10 percent of the workforce, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. The self-employed tend to be happier with their work than those employed by others, a Pew survey conducted in February revealed.
· 66.33 years was the average retirement age in 2022, for both women and men, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
When you, or we, consider the value of our time, all sorts of comparisons and calculations spring to mind. Am I making enough? Should I be charging more, or paying more, depending on whether one is a service provider or a boss?
On the other hand, as potential consumers and purchasers, the perspective typically differs. Should I save money by taking on more DIY projects at home? Hmm. I think I can learn to do minor masonry repairs, but I certainly understand why reasonable people would hire someone for that job. Taxes are different. Even if the IRS makes it easier, through automation, for individuals to file, I think I have had my fill of saving accounting fees and spending from my limited lifetime supply of patience for the task.
Even more pressing than those considerations, are the thoughts about what I’ll call the “Vocations per Working Years” ratio. I use the term vocations here as I may decide to include volunteer work, and not just paid hours, in my calculations.
It may be more common for people to speak and write about intentions on their Bucket Lists; they want to travel to specific destinations while they are well and ambulatory, for instance. I’m all for putting travel and purely recreational pursuits on the Bucket List.
But I find thinking of Vocations per Working Years allows me to be more specific; these are activities that require me to show up with my grey matter and accomplish or help accomplish a goal shared with others. Paid work is all the better. Some of these are alternatives to the careers I’ve already had, had I not been able to pursue my first-choice fields. Or careers I might have tried in different eras.
Maybe you have seen photos from other decades of people, typically women, driving bookmobiles through cities and towns to reach populations hungry for reading material. Sometimes, before autos were common, librarians rode on horseback in more rural areas. Sign me up!
The small catch is that bookmobiles, though still around, are much less common now. I have not yet figured out a way to overcome that.
I’ve got a couple of other ideas kicking around, too (that I’m not quite ready to share), and expect more ideas may present themselves, depending on what the labor marketplace and society seem to want.
Chime in, please, if you want to get a discussion going about your thoughts on new careers or endeavors for the working years.
And Happy Labor Day.
