Given the news from MCD today, the following thoughts on unemployment help to explain why MCD is seeing sluggish trends in the USA!
This chart tells the story about a key demographic for the QSR segment - the core 16-24 year olds - which are heavy users of fast food.
The following is taken from Andrew Barber’s post “Stagflation: Where the Pain is...”:
IDLE YOUTH
Looking at total employment ratio’s estimated by the Department of Labor shows that, on a seasonally adjusted basis 16-24 year olds had a very rough summer in 2009 with the figure hitting the lowest level since inception in 1948 and fewer than 50% working for the first sustained period since the draft ended (without seasonal adjustment that ration would be over 51%).
DOL methodology excludes military personnel from the labor force estimates but, with up a huge percentage of all men 18-21 drafted (or motivated to enlist by the draft) at periods between the end of WW2 & early 70’s, and furthermore with 72% of all Vietnam period veterans accessing GI bill benefits (significantly higher than WW2 & Korea vets, presumably because Vietnam vets were significantly younger as a group) it must have skewed this data immensely. Note that the prior Assistance Readjustment act of 1972 raised GI bill benefits for returning servicemen to payout levels exceeding many entry level salaries –essentially creating a huge incentive for veterans not to work during the subsequent recessionary periods. This all suggests that, on the whole, the employment picture for young Americans is significantly worse than at any point in the living memory of the majority of the population.
