After transfer payments to households jumped 30 percent from the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2021,18 no one should have been surprised that over the same period 1.5 percent of the civilian labor force, or about 2.5 million people, simply dropped out of the labor force.19 With 11 million job openings and a booming economy, these 2.5 million people did not come back to work.
