Posted on 09/02/2013 4:12:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
America’s job market is changing – again. It was just a few decades ago that women entered the workforce in large numbers. Now they are increasingly the primary earners in their families – with a full forty percent acting as the chief breadwinner in their homes. At the same time, men are seeing their place in the workforce diminish: the percentage of stay-at-home dads has doubled in the last decade. And according to a new documentary that focuses on this issue of our time, “The Big Flip”, the average woman’s income is rising at a pace that will put them ahead of men in average earnings in just 15 years.
This is great news, right? Women are better educated than before. They are more in control of their lives. They are increasingly successful in business, commerce, entertainment and other sectors. There is a lot to be happy about. And it’s great that more families can choose what works for them. The traditional father-as-provider model may not work for every family. More couples now have the flexibility to choose a different path.
Unfortunately, a look behind the data shows it’s not all good news. For too many, “The Flip” isn’t about two earners who decide which of them will get to spend more quality time raising their children. Instead, it’s a forced choice: one made because a husband has surrendered in the face of an awful economy.
The Great Recession is making many changes in this economy. It’s accelerated one trend that‘s been underway since the 1950s: the declining participation of men in the workforce. There are plenty of reasons that men have slowly been dropping out: increasing use of disability, more jobs requiring a college education, and simple aging. But during the Great Recession, the male “dropout rate” from the labor force has jumped. Now, for the first time, fewer than ninety percent of men in their prime work years are in the labor force. Many left not by choice, but because they were driven out. The vast majority of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were lost by men.
This might not be a big deal if these jobs were coming back, or if we were seeing growth in sectors that these displaced workers could shift to. But that’s not happening either. According to a recent study by the liberal Urban Institute, nearly five million workers are now considered ‘long-term unemployed,’ and nearly one million more have stopped looking for work completely - most of them, men.
The ramifications for these workers are severe. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently spelled out just how hard it is for the long-term unemployed get back to their former earnings level. For many, it’s impossible. Workers don’t just suddenly lose a job one day; long before they enter into long-term unemployment, they start to see their wages fall. They drop by an average of more than seventeen percent from two years before their unemployment spell to the year after it began.
Even four years after the start of the long-term unemployment period, average hourly wages are still seven percent down from their level years before. So this trauma doesn’t begin the day they lose a job and end when they start working; for many families, this is a lost decade. Even years later, they deal with earnings losses, earnings volatility, and later periods of job loss. That doesn’t even begin to count the effect on family finances, sense of self-worth, raising of children, and the damage it can do to a marriage.
Is there anything we can do? We can start by looking deeper into the data. The increased role of women in the workforce is great – to the extent that it represents a choice, rather than a last resort. But policymakers in Washington shouldn’t try to hide the fact that many people are just trying to cope with an awful job market. Instead of sitting back and boasting about an economic recovery, workers and families need a bipartisan push for real, self-sustaining private sector job creation. Government stimulus has not worked – the numbers show it. It’s time for a new approach – one that empowers job creators and helps families to choose the model that works best for them.
Look what social engineering by the US government has brought us. A dysfunctional society in decline.
They are choking every last breath of free enterprise. Even the burger flippers are being affected. Not the place I grew up in. No, I’m not 80. Just 50. KMA mf’s!
Of course they will. They have to hide everything they possibly can, or someone will figure out that the awful job market is exactly the intended result of the administration's policies.
Once they’re off unemployment compensation they’re no longer counted as unemployed so the numbers go down and obama can say the economy is growing even though their still unemployed!
> But during the Great Recession, the male “dropout rate” from the labor force has jumped. Now, for the first time, fewer than ninety percent of men in their prime work years are in the labor force. Many left not by choice, but because they were driven out. The vast majority of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were lost by men.
Lets be honest, its not the “Great Recession”; it’s the Worldwide MEGA Depression and much greater in scope and magnitude. Our government is just hiding the true numbers and devastation and covering it up.
The reality is that a lot of the jobs in the “recovery” are low-paying positions for which many men are overqualified. Plus, if you are a white, hetero male you are silently discriminated against by all the Affirmative Action policies that give preference to everyone but white hetero males.
Not that non-white males have it much easier judging from black unemployment numbers. But a good many of the new jobs are service sector positions which prefer women they can boss around and underpay.
I consider myself blessed. I’m a white, hetero male in his mid-50s. I was laid off at the end of 2010 and only this month am back working at a job that pays 93% of what I used to make (probably 85% in real terms).
I was unemployed for 16 months (not consecutively) and have gone through three jobs since then. I wound up taking a contractor position for $12/hr just to get myself back in the workforce and was in it for nine months before this new contract job came along.
Yes, you can recover after the recession but it is not easy and I can’t tell you all the applications I sent out, all the interviews I had and all the money I lost in the interim. I give God the glory. I surrendered to Him and let Him find the jobs for me. I am not doing what I’d really love to do but I am doing well enough and I have Christ’s promise that He is sufficient.
It also helps to live in Texas where job opportunities continue to grow and the state government still believes in a robust private sector.
“with a full forty percent acting as the chief breadwinner in their homes”
That same study showed that just 10 percent of women with a husband are the chief breadwinner. This is not appreciably different from 40 years ago.
Most of us are contractors now in some way or another - no benefits.
But they still vote. I can't see how it is that the offshore/outsource everything crowd fail to see this. Short term bottom lines blind them to the consequences of having 47% of the population tossed to the curb - and let's face it, unless you are willing to kill everyone who is below average you're always going to have people who can only function in menial tasks - those jobless people are going to vote for reptiles who will craft punitive regulations and taxes that will lower everybody's boat.
There are rumblings in China as hard line communists are starting to reassert themselves, and those shiny new factories may soon be nationalized. So what was accomplished in the deindustrialization of America? Our enemies are modernized and are now a manufacturing powerhouse and America itself has become a nation of burger flippers, resentful libtards who vote, and Freedom is all but extinguished. A land where you can drive your brand new Audi to the corner where you'll be beaten to death by a mob of obama's sons, and you will be made to look like the guilty party by the media. Winning!
And a much larger percentage of unmarried women provide most of the income to their households. Of course!
It sounds like this information is neither good news nor bad news: it's non-news!
“if you are a white, hetero male you are silently discriminated against by all the Affirmative Action policies that give preference to everyone but white hetero males.”
I tend to agree if not wholeheartedly agree and if those policies are indeed being lived up to, how exactly is it made to happen? Who is in a position(s) to make that happen and how does a system of “silent discrimination” really work?
I call it what it usually is. Lies.
Almost any business of decent size has EEOC guidelines and the fear of a discrimination suit by minorities so they tend to make sure that they have a workforce and management with enough “diversity” to counteract any institutional claims of racism or sexism.
Why do you think almost every job applicant is encouraged to sign an EEOC form? It’s so the HR beancounters can immediately determine if hiring you helps them in any of their diversity quotas.
There’s a hierarchy of liberal diversity value:
1. African-American
2. Woman
3. Latino
4. LGBT
5. Asian
6. Middle Eastern
7. U.S. veteran*
The more of these racial quotas you can help them fill, the more eager employers are to make room for you as long as you are remotely qualified.
That’s not to say people in these groups are less qualified than white hetero males but government and large businesses are keenly aware of how much and how many they have of each of these groups both in management and in the general workforce. White males, in general, are a threat to these quota groups so the “silent discrimination” exists in hiring department.
Right-to-work seems like a step in the right direction and the natural extension would seem to be an end to Affirmative Action policies.
Once they’re off unemployment compensation they’re no longer counted as unemployed so the numbers go down and obama can say the economy is growing even though their still unemployed!
There are people were converted by their employers to be 1099 contractors (sames as self employed). When that job is eliminated there are no unemployment benefits.
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