How The Opioid Crisis Is Depressing America’s Labor Force
“It’s been a decade since the financial crisis drove up the unemployment rate in the U.S. and forced people in the prime of their careers to give up looking for work. Even today, as employers add jobs at a furious pace, the workforce participation rate still hasn’t recovered. And now researchers think they know one reason why: the opioid crisis. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the percentage of people of prime working age – between 25 and 54 – who are employed or looking for work is well below the rate of other developed countries.”