HuffPo: 1 in 5 Working-Age American Men Don't Have A Job

[highplainsdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/08/1-in-5-working-age-americ_n_415984.html

One in five working-age American men does not have a job, according to the latest federal employment numbers, an all-time high that illustrates the extraordinary toll this recession has taken on male-dominated professions in particular.

Men are more likely to work in sectors like manufacturing and construction that are more sensitive to economic downturns. But this downturn has been particularly brutal on those industries, leading some observers to call it a "mancession."

Only 80.3 percent of men age 25-54 had jobs in December -- the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting that data in 1948 -- at which point the figure was 94.4 percent. When the recession began in December 2007, less than 13 percent of men in this age bracket were out of work.

The numbers are derived from what the BLS calls its employment-to-population ratio. While the non-working number in this case includes men who have voluntarily chosen to stay out of the workforce, such as students and stay-at-home dads, in many ways it provides a clearer picture of the depth of the nation's unemployment situation.

The percentage of women age 25-54 who have work is also down, but not as dramatically. Some 69.1 percent of those women are employed, about the same as in 1998. Women dominate the fields such as education, health services and government. The health industry and government payrolls are booming, and are expected to continue growing, thanks to an aging population and recently-enacted stimulus programs to boost the economy, respectively.

Overall, the percentage of Americans over age 16 that holds a job continues to slide, reaching 58.2 percent. That's a 25-year-low.

-snip-

[stray cat]

1. I have a few relatives that age that don't want to work - anything requiring work is beneath them

[Hello_Kitty]

2. And their parents let them live at home and enable the attitude.

I'm shocked at the number of young men I know who have no job and no aspirations to do anything but sit at home and play video games. Then you have people complaining how more women are going to college now.

[terrell9584]

4. If there were jobs for these people

They would be able to work. But there are no jobs right now.

[Hello_Kitty]

12. This has been going on for years.

Even when jobs were available these pampered young princes were to good to do them.

[LisaM]

5. Or, it's a cause and effect thing to some extent.

Women still earn less than men for the same jobs, so they are hired and retained for jobs men won't be.

But that's only part of it. Part of it's the GenX effect. GenX men I know do not think they should have to do any kind of manual work. They all want to work in tech, and most don't intend to have the same job for any length of time (and part of this lack of loyalty, IMO, stems from the Reagan years, when companies stopped being loyal to their employees). So now you have a generation of people who job hop, want to get in on the ground floor of new companies, think stock options are not only acceptable compensation but that they'll get rich from them, and, want to retire early.

It's partly a Peter Pan syndrome, but I think that the pro-corporate policies of the 80s helped spawn it.

Added onto that, and I do think it's a very layered issue, we don't respect a lot of jobs in this country. In Europe, for example, it's perfectly respectable to work construction or be a waiter, or in another service job. You can also do those jobs and have a decent quality of life because they have good health care. Here, not so much. We're making college a requirement for jobs, yet don't guarantee anything to college graduates.

If I were a 20ish male, I would be pretty frustrated right now too.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I have two grown kids still living at home

One has a good job, the other has a job that's not too great. Neither one can afford to live on their own.

And neither one sits around playing video games.

We have several friends with kids at home as well. There are no jobs for these kids; college is expensive and leads to few job prospects.

[Hello_Kitty]

14. Hmm, why does the phrase "jobs that Americans won't do" ring in my head right now?

I live in Phoenix and pretty much all the fast food places are staffed with immigrants. Same with warehouses. Immigrants do nearly all the cleaning and landscaping work. Supposedly these immigrants are needed to fill a "labor shortage" and that there are no Americans available or willing to do these hard and menial jobs.

Interesting.

[Vinnie From Indy]

15. Your ignorance appears to only be surpassed by your callousness

The fact is that your generalizations are meaningless. The fact is that there are millions of men suffering from this economic catastrophe and these men are real people whether you acknowledge that fact or not. They have wives, children, mothers and fathers that may depend on them in ways you will never know. I find your shallow, self-centered view of the OP to be quite revealing of your temperament and character!

You like fruit?

How do you like them apples?

Also, in regard to your "jobs Americans won't do" BS, the fact is that many Americans do not want to work for pennies a day, no job safety rules, no insurance and no future. If you think that Americans should be happy about having all the progress made by working men and women over the last century to insure a living wage, safe working environments and workers compensation should they get injured be taken away, you truly are uninformed.

Is there any doubt that you will be singing a different tune should it be your job or industry that is offshored or filled by a person that is willing to take less than half what you were paid? That is, if you even work at all.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. Actually, Vinnie, I agree with most of what you say.

Your post makes the point I was (admittedly clumsily) trying to make about the cognitive dissonance of people claiming there are "no jobs" for young adults while simultaneously embracing the existence of an underclass of poorly paid and badly treated quasi-slaves.

As for young men, it's not about whether I like them or not (I find most people below the age of 30 to be intolerable and have felt that way since I was under 30), it's about my observation of the large number of late teen and young adult men in my own circle of acquaintances who are shockingly inept and unmotivated. Not only no job, but no social skills and no responsibilities of any kind. Nearly all of them on some kind of medication too. I lay the blame completely on their parents.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. If you are implying that my kids haven't applied for jobs everywhere,

including fast food, you would be wrong.

In fact one of the more popular hamburger joints here where we live fired all of their employees and hired IMMIGRANTS to replace them. And of course they are paying less than minimum wage.

[Hello_Kitty]

19. That's kind of the point I was trying to make.

I'm not suggesting that some young adults aren't looking for work in those places and getting turned down. I know for a fact this happens here in Phoenix. A young man wrote an article about trying to get hired at a car wash place and having no luck, though every single one he visited advertised it was hiring. OTOH I do think there is an attitude of entitlement among a lot of American kids and their parents that contributes to the problem. I remember when I suggested to the father of one of the young unemployed medicated video gamers I know that the gas station on the corner was hiring cashiers for $9 an hour his exact words to me were "Oh I don't want him doing that kind of work. He's meant for better things than that." :wow: I was, well, enjoy having him live off of you for the next 50 years or so.

[MidwestRick]

23. And of course they are paying less than minimum wage.

Really? Do you have proof of this? If so, why haven't you reported this to the state or federal authorities?

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. When did I say it hadn't been reported?

FAIL

[hunter]

20. Immigrants are less likely to speak up against illegal and unethical business practices....

...most especially undocumented workers who live under constant fear of harassment and deportation.

That's why many places preferentially hire immigrants. They can pay them less, get them to do illegal and unethical stuff, sexually harass them, and short their pay. They work hard, but most of all they don't complain even when they have legitimate things to complain about.

Insecticides and chemicals used improperly, warehouses run in a dangerous manner, overtime not paid, supervisors who grope women, break times and lunches shorted, food safety regulations ignored, animals treated inhumanely... these are often the "jobs that Americans won't do."

[Quantess]

21. Well their "careers" are recession proof, then.

There are plenty of men who desperately want a job and can't find work.

[mnhtnbb]

3. Notice the age bracket. What about men 18-25? Not everyone goes to college. And what about

age 55-65? Not everyone retires at age 55!

I suspect the statistics are even worse when those brackets are added.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. It used to be you were an adult at age 18 but childhood has officially been extended

Nowadays you have 25 year olds who can barely wipe their own asses. I'm not kidding about that. Two women wrote a "survival guide" for coddled young adults, including how to wipe your ass. http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/story.html?id=e3e8fd70-c5eb-4774-b928-716543dcfc09 Read the article. It's shocking how clueless many young adults are these days and it's entirely the fault of their overly indulgent parents.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

22. Holy crap!

And it's 514 pages? :wow:

I'm 29, and I'm glad I never went through that phase.

[joeybee12]

7. Largely because the blue-collar jobs are largely filled by men...

...construction, factories, etc. and that's where the real slashing of jobs has taken place.

[htuttle]

8. "Once I built a railroad, made it run..."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HyyDHyAwI6k/SvWO6Q8gHtI/AAAAAAAAG6o/qjKvM-CERB4/s400/depression+unemployment+cartoon.jpg

[no_hypocrisy]

9. That song always evokes tears from me.

[avaistheone1]

10. Yeah, but we have our wars going.

So it is all good.



:sarcasm:

[Kansas Wyatt]

13. I have one, but there is no work for me to do, so I'm off without pay.

Only 19 1/2 hours per week for 2009, then without any work in September. If things pick back up, they will call me...

Still waiting by the phone.

[TexasObserver]

16. Tens years of systematically undercutting American workers.

Tens years or more of sending jobs across the borders and overseas.

[Sebastian Doyle]

24. Try 30 years.

Started with the Bush Crime Family under Reagan. Continued under Poppy, Clinton, and Chimpy. Still continuing now (i.e. Walgreen's big announcement yesterday).

[SoCalDem]

25. Over a 30-40 year timeframe, our society has removed jobs that non-college educated men can do

"Can do" from the sense that the jobs that once were considered menial, could have supported a family... and did support families.

Over time, outsourcing & "mechanical/robotic" substitutes, took those jobs away..but those men did not "go away".. Every year a new crop of them graduated from high school (or did not graduate), but they still married & had families..and in time the women flowed into the workforce to compete for the same jobs that still existed.I saw a guy on one of the university channels one night, who had written a book about these people.. he called them "throwaway people".. These are marginalized people who , in another time, would have led productive lives, bought a small house, taken vacations, bought washers & dryers & cars and would have saved enough to send their own kids to college. They were the foundry workers, the service station employees, the janitors, the cooks, the shoe store employees, the farm workers.

They have no "place" anymore, since everything has been corporatized, and minimum wages have not kept up with housing & education costs.. Every year these people fall further behind, and now 2 or 3 generations of their children have joined their ranks, as fewer and fewer jobs exist.

Not everyone can go to college, and even college does not guarantee success, when graduates finish school with the equivalent of a couple of mortgages straddling them like albatrosses..and many times the jobs they land are not much more than a step up from unpaid intern status.

the deck is stacked..the game is rigged..

children of winners will still win, and the rest will fight over crumbs.