In a speech last month, the Federal Reserve VC Stanley Fischer referred to the US economy having "returned to near-full employment". The article attempts to show how that claim can be misleading with the use of factual data relevant to American men. A parallel can be drawn between the work-rate in 2015 for American males (age 25-54) which was 84.4% and the work-rate at the end of the Great Depression in 1940 which was barely higher at 86.4%. Moreover, American men age 20 and older without paid work is a statistic that has risen from 19% to 32% over the past half century. Aside from generally being classified as employed or unemployed, it is stated that in the aftermath of the World War II rose a new category of working-age American males: 'unworking' working age men outside the labor force (neither working nor seeking work).
This is not completely surprising as one of the major reasons for the increase of men in this category is that jobs have been moving off shore in sectors that generally used to consist of men while female-dominant sectors have been seeing growth in jobs. A massive difference can be seen between health and education (74.6% females employees) and manufacturing (29.1% female employees). The article bemoans the nonconstructive activities of the 'unworking' men since only 10% of them comprise students putting in effort to improve their living standards. The majority is reportedly quite idle and lazy, exemplified by them taking out less time out to help with household work than even unemployed men, and focusing more on personal leisure.
While unemployment has gone down and the economic situation definitely seems to be improving on paper since 2009, the long-term increase in working-age men leaving the labor force altogether is, as Eberstadt states, "a quiet catastrophe".
Article link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-idle-army-americas-unworking-men-1472769641
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