Older workers stay in the labor force

A senior engineer-technician working

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published 20 December 2023

America’s biggest money gripes

When Americans complain about prices, college is no longer at the top of the list, said Simran Parwani in Axios. From 2012 to 2020, college was the top subject Americans wondered about when they asked Google "why is ___ so expensive?" according to a recent Google Trends analysis. It was replaced by "lumber" in 2021, "gas" in 2022, and "eggs" this year. Search queries varied by state. For instance, "Connecticut was most curious about 'Hamilton tickets' in 2017." The cost of "insulin" was also a hot topic in 2019, briefly. Zooming out, "the most globally searched item" this year related to costs was "flights." But "overall, people in the U.S. asked about the high cost of 'college' more frequently than any other country."

Handling lots of fake bills has given Hollywood prop masters some perspective on money, said Joe Pinsker in The Wall Street Journal. Juan Amaya, whose prop-money products have been featured on shows like Billions, was taken aback by the underwhelming appearance of $1 million in fake dollars on a table in his office. "I remember thinking that a million dollars was going to be from the floor to the ceiling," Amaya said. "And that was not the case at all." Amaya said he now uses prop cash as "a powerful budgeting tool," laying out piles of ersatz bills "to visualize monthly expenses." Another prop-business owner said a lot of his customers are just "teenagers who post pictures of themselves holding up fake cash on social media." It’s taught him that not everything with money is always as it appears.

More Americans are postponing retirement, said Abha Bhattarai in The Washington Post. A recent Pew analysis found that "19% of Americans 65 and over were employed this year." That’s up from 11% in 1987. Amazingly, those even older (75 and up) represented the fastest-growing group in the workforce, Pew found, as more Americans "un-retired" last year or added part-time work to generate income. Older workers’ pay has risen, and the gap between the pay of prime-age workers and those over 65 has narrowed substantially. Older Americans are also "healthier than in the past" and able to work longer. But the growing share of older workers may be "making it harder for younger workers to break into careers and move up."