Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
The Department of Labor keeps careful track of employment and the demographics thereof.Their latest report on men in the labor force is both mysterious and deeply alarming.It turns out that the labor force is missing about 7 million men who would otherwise be working. Close to a third of working-age men have vanished from the labor force.
The labor force participation rate among “prime age men,” age 25 to 54, in the 1950s approached 100 percent. Now it is 89 percent, meaning roughly 11 percent are not in the labor force (neither working nor looking for work).
Among all men over 16 years of age, the rate is a devastatingly low 66 percent, so about one-third are gone. Among U.S.-born men, nearly 22 percent are gone.
The trend in decline dates far back, accelerated in the 1960s, stabilized in the 1980s, declined again after the turn of the century, and took a deep dive after the pandemic lockdowns and never recovered. It is falling again now, nearly to the lows we saw when the economy was actually locked down.
The explanations for this are all over the map. Disability ranks at the top.
But we aren’t really talking about wooden legs and paraplegics here. This traces tomental disorders, substance abuse, obesity and chronic disease, low motivation, pharmaceutical injury, and general lethargy and demoralization.
How do they pay the bills? The lucky ones have trust fund flows. The conventional ones live with Mom and Dad and take disability benefits. The really unlucky ones are simply homeless.
The number of men who live with parents has tripled since the 1950swhen the expectation was that you would be kicked out of the nest at 17 and only return for holidays and special occasions. Otherwise, any self-respecting dude would make a living for himself, find a bride, and set up his own family. The idea of basement dwelling was simply unheard of.
There is overlap here with men falling out of the workforce. Men (especially non-college) living with parents are 20 percent less likely to be in the labor force than those living independently.
Source: ZeroHedge News
