Posted on 06/16/2018 5:41:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
With unemployment at 3.8 percent, its lowest level in many years, the labor market seems healthy.
But that number hides a perplexing anomaly: The percentage of men who are neither working nor looking for work has risen substantially over the past several decades.
The issue, in economist’s jargon, is labor force participation. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys households, every adult is put into one of three categories. Those who have a job are employed. Those who are not working but are searching for a job are unemployed. Those who are neither working nor looking for work are counted as out of the labor force.
This last group is ignored when calculating the unemployment rate. The presumption is that if a person without a job isn’t looking for one, then he or she doesn’t want one, and the joblessness is not a problem. But is that really accurate?
The data show some striking changes over time. Among women, the share out of the labor force has fallen from 66 percent in 1950 to 43 percent today. That is not surprising in light of changing social norms and the greater career opportunities now open to women.
Men, however, exhibit the opposite long-term trend. In 1950, 14 percent of men were out of the labor force. Today, that figure stands at 31 percent.
Some of this change is easy to explain. People now spend more years in school, delaying their start of work. In addition, as life expectancy rises, people have longer retirements. A man retiring at age 65 in 1950 could expect to live another 13 years. Today, a man retiring at that age has an average retirement of 18 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In 1950, only 4 percent of prime-age men were not working or looking for work. Today, that figure is 11 percent.
Women.
I don’t think there was much SS-Disability in 1950 …
Men are not in the chosen groups.
Chart seems to clearly answer the question.
If those numbers are percentages of ALL prime-age men, then I suspect unemployability is a bigger problem than unemployment. How many men in this age group have no criminal records and could pass a drug test?
Most of it can be explained by the changing labour landscape. It used to be that most people would just learn the job, while on the job. Now, employers will not touch you until you have completed at 4 years, and preferably 6 years of education.
What? There’s PLENTY of Mexican men working!
And if en employer hires a white person who happens to have a penis, they are RACIST!
While presented as sarcasm, I may be speaking more truth than even I realize.
Well, that’s because of women, too. The answer to any question of the “Why are men ...?” or “Why aren’t men ...” genre is, “Women.”
I learned it on FR.
Explain.
For years and years the Progressives at the NYT told us that women should have high-paying jobs and that if someone was going to stay home with the kids, why can’t it be the man? In an enlightened society, real men change diapers and have dinner on the table when the Missus comes home.
And now the NYT says, “It’s the strangest dang thing ... a bunch of men seem to be out of the labor force ... what the heck is going on???????”
lest=least
“...Men are not in the chosen groups....”
Exactly. They’re discriminated against in lieu of the “favored groups”.
IF you’re a black queer female and can print your name, you got it made.
I suspect that many of these men are actually engaged in some sort of money-making activity, but prefer not to talk about it. It could be legal, it could be illegal, or it could be on the margins.
Something as simple as giving people rides to the airport, or doing handyman work through a Craigslist ad, can bring in some cash money that does not register in any government statistics.
See my #12.
The UE numbers are so cooked they are like overdone beef jerky.
Watch any commercial, listen to any advertisement.
ANY.
Men are stupid, worthless creatures.
It’s odd that any of them have a job.
Not sarcasm, I’m serious.
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