The U.S. labor force's guy problem: Lots of men donft have a job and arenft looking for one
By Jim Puzzanghera
November 21, 2016, 11:50 AM" - LA Times
As the recovery from the Great Recession continues, job growth is
solid and the labor force is growing at close to its fastest pace since
2000 because more unemployed workers are coming off the sidelines.
Still, the percentage of working-age Americans in the labor force remains
stuck near its lowest level since the late 1970s. Although retiring baby boomers
are the main reason, therefs another troubling factor that experts predict
wonft be solved by stronger economic growth.
Too many men in their prime donft have a job and arenft even looking for
one. Experts trying to figure out the reasons are probing the roles of
criminal background checks, painkillers and even video games.
A little more than half of the men reported they were ill or disabled,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 14% are going to school. And
about 20% said they were either retired or handling home
responsibilities.
Economists said increased globalization and the decline in factory jobs has
played a major role in pushing prime-aged men, particularly those with less
education, out of the workforce. But that doesnft explain why the problem
is worse in the U.S. than in most other economically advanced nations.
Researchers have pointed to some other potential explanations. Prime-age
American men outside the labor force are spending more time playing video games,
making leisure time more enjoyable. About half are in so much pain from
physical maladies that they take daily medication for it, making holding a job
difficult.
And in a problem drawing more attention from economists, the nationfs high
incarceration rate has left many men with felony convictions that raise red
flags during employer background checks.
While the reasons may be up for debate, having so many men failing to
contribute has troubling implications for the economy.
gItfs terrible. Therefs absolutely nothing good that comes out of it,h said
Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think
tank. gIt is certainly near the center of so much that is sad and wrong
about the way our society and our economy are performing today.h
The problem has been building for a long time.
The percentage of prime-aged men in the U.S. workforce — those either
with a job or actively looking for one — peaked at 97.9% in 1954. But
since the mid-1960s, the labor force participation rate for those men has
steadily declined. The rate has varied during economic booms and busts, but
generally has been on a downward trend.
The rate bottomed out at 88% in 2014 and has been hovering near there ever
since. The figure was 88.6% in October.
The labor force participation rate for women rose sharply from the mid-1960s
through the 1980s as it became more socially acceptable for them to work. But
the rate for women has fallen off in recent years, too, to 56.8% in
October. The overall participation rate for men and women over 16 years old was
62.8% last month.
The Obama administration was concerned enough about the trend and its
implications that the White House Council of Economic Advisors issued a 47-page
report this summer examining the reasons for the decline and policies that could
help address it. Eberstadt wrote a book on the subject, gMen Without Work,
Americafs Invisible Crisis,h that was published in September. And economists
have been studying the phenomenon.
Alan
Krueger, a Princeton economist, published a paper last month titled gWhere
Have All the Workers Gone?h that said gaddressing the decades-long slide in
labor force participation by prime age men should be a national priority.h
gWe're not fully utilizing the human resources we have and that means the
economy is not performing as well as it could be,h Krueger said in an interview.
gThat means our overall standard of living is lower because output is lower than
it can be.h
Krueger, who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2011
to 2013, added to the debate over the issue by conducting a survey that found
that 47% of prime-aged men who are out of the workforce said they took pain
medication the previous day. Nearly two-thirds of those reported that they took
prescription painkillers.
When asked if pain prevented them from working at a full-time job, 40% of
prime-aged men out of the workforce said yes, Krueger found.
He said he hasnft been able to determine if the pain problems are a cause or
an effect for the men being out of the workforce.
gI suspect the arrows go in both directions,h Krueger said. gSome had severe
disabilities that caused them to withdraw [from the workforce] and others
became despondent and perhaps obese from their lifestyles which caused
disability problems.h
Research this year by Kruegerfs Princeton colleague, economist Mark Aguiar,
pointed to another potential reason — the lure of video games.
Video games have become more elaborate and sophisticated, while online gaming
has expanded the universe of people to play against.
Men ages 21-30 who were not in the workforce reported spending an average of
6.7 hours a week playing video games from 2012 to 2015, compared with just 3.6
hours from 2000 to 2007.
The figures are higher for men in that age group with less than a college
education. Erik Hurst, an economist at the University of Chicagofs
Booth School of Business, found that those men spent an average of two
hours a day on video games in 2014, with 10% of them reporting playing for six
hours a day.
About seven in 10 lower-skilled men in their 20s without a job lived with a
parent or close relative, according to his research. But despite that, they
reported being happier on average than they were in the early 2000s.
gThe life of these nonworking, lower-skilled young men looks like what my son
wishes his life was like now: not in school, not at work, and lots of video
games,h Hurst wrote recently.
Eberstadt said the gmost scandalously ignoredh reason why so many prime-aged
men are not in the workforce is the nationfs high incarceration rate. As many as
20 million Americans, most of them men, have a felony record. That could help
explain why the labor force problem is worse here than in other advanced
economies, he said.
The U.S. has the worldfs second-highest prison population rate — 698
prisoners for every 100,000 people, according to the Institute for Criminal
Policy Research. People in prison are not counted in any way in U.S. labor
statistics, which look only at the civilian non-institutionalized
population.
gIs there discrimination against felons and ex-cons? Do they lose their
skills in jail?h Eberstadt said. gThis is a huge missing piece of the
puzzle.h
Joel Valdez, 32, of Los Angeles, was paroled in June from Californiafs
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison after more than 15 years behind bars for
his conviction on two counts of assault with a firearm. Hefs been working at a
voter-engagement phone bank that employs mostly former inmates and is operated
by LA Voice, a faith-based community organization. But itfs been difficult to
find work with a felony record and, even though he earned a high-school
equivalency degree in prison, he didnft get much training.
gI know that, more often than not, if Ifm not working in a warehouse or
getting my foot in the door through labor jobs or having family friends, that it
would be super hard to get a job because of my background,h Valdez said. gSome
people are sketchy about hiring people with that background. Itfs
tough.h
A Los
Angeles City Council committee approved an ordinance in September that
would prevent most employers from asking about a job applicantfs criminal
history until after a conditional offer has been made.
Reforming the criminal justice system, including gimproving reentry into the
workforce for the formerly incarcerated,h is among the ways to get more
prime-aged men back into the workforce, according to the White House report.
Its other recommendations included changing the tax code to expand work
incentives and creating more demand for workers through funding for
infrastructure upgrades.
Eberstadt said that overhauling disability programs also could help push more
prime-aged men back into the workforce by removing a key source of income.
Expanding health insurance coverage also could address the problem of
out-of-work men taking painkillers.
gIf men have preventative care and treat problems earlier on it could prevent
them from causing the kinds of chronic pain that seems to be a barrier to work
for so many people,h Krueger said.