This article takes a look at how, despite what most people assume, a large percentage of men did not have steady employment in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A larger percentage of men found themselves in precarious employment situations after the 60s. This has big implications for the future, because it seems obvious things for the current generation of young men are going to end up being worse. If this paints a picture of how things were more difficult for the last generation of men than most assume, then the outlook does not look good for the next generation. The male labor force participation rate has been steadily declining since the 1970s, and workers are experiencing greater labor market precarity -- that is, shorter job spells, greater job insecurity and more long-term unemployment. (source: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) , Labor Force Participation Rate - Men , 1948 to 2024 ) We studied data from about 4,500 men collected over more than 25 years. We were looking for patterns in the amount of time these men spent employed, unemployed and looking for work, and out of the workforce and not looking for work. We were surprised to find that only 41% of late baby boomer men -- those who were between 14 and 21 years old in 1979 -- worked steadily and continuously, which we defined as working almost every week of the year between ages 27 and 49. This is a cohort of men who were widely thought to have taken a "lockstep" approach to work: entering the labor market when they finished their schooling and remaining employed until retirement. We found most men didn't fit this stereotype. About a quarter didn't reach steady employment until they were nearly 50. Another quarter either found themselves increasingly unemployed and out of work as they aged or able to find only intermittent work. Finally, a smaller group of men left the labor market entirely -- some leaving paid work at relatively young ages, while others leaving as they reached middle age. A study of more than 4,500 male baby boomers found that fewer than half spent their prime working years continuously employed. We don't know exactly why these men followed such a wide range of work patterns during what economists call their "prime earning years". But we think increasing labor market precarity -- which researchers say is driven in large part by increases in layoffs and decreases in unionization -- played a big role. For example, we found that men who worked as "operators, fabricators and laborers" or in "precision production, craft and repairs" were at greater risk of unemployment. These are jobs that provided our own grandfathers with good, well-paying work, but they are also jobs that have become increasingly rare since the 1970s. We also found that men were at greater risk if they lived in counties with a higher unemployment rate or in states with more unionized jobs when they first entered the labor market. That latter point likely put them at greater risk of job loss when those jobs went overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. Men who experienced unemployment, more job turnover before the age of 25 or transportation barriers to finding a good job also followed less steady work patterns, suggesting that they may have been forced to take "bad jobs" that provided fewer opportunities to move up the ladder or to earn a living wage. Our findings paint a troubling portrait of employment in America. If this kind of unsteady employment characterizes the work patterns of the baby-boom generation, what awaits those of us who follow them? The myth of men's full-time employment, by Sarah Damaske, Penn State and Adrianne Frech, Ohio University, The Conversation, February 8, 2024
excessive foreign outsourcing, excessive foreign imports, automation and soon Artificial Intelligence, all combined will kill Capitalism yes, greedy Corporatism will kill Capitalism.... India will be the new superpower, where will America and other Countries land on their Caste system?
we see the problems as they occur, but how do we address it? "Americans know wealth inequality is a problem, but what does it look like?"
