BRIEF | The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported a 3.4% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in February, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from January.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | The Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported an unemployment rate of 3.7% for workers aged 55 and older in October. However, the unemployment rate fails to reflect the increasing concentration of older workers in low-wage service jobs.

BRIEF | The average unemployment rate is down. But it is up for older workers. Today’s jobs report from the Department of Labor reports an unemployment rate of 3.7% for workers over 55 in January, up from 3.2% last month, an increase of 0.5 percentage points.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | The unemployment rate is falling for workers in all age groups. For workers over 55, today’s jobs report from the Department of Labor shows an unemployment rate of 3.2% in December, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from last month.

BRIEF | This week another GOP presidential hopeful, Jeb Bush, announced his support for raising the retirement age, a policy that would force older workers with inadequate retirement savings to depend on the labor market for needed income and savings.

WORKING PAPER | This paper investigates whether stylized facts relating globalization with the "feminization" of labor still holds, or if de-feminization of manufacturing employment in developing countries has set in.