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A rising number of men in their prime career years are dropping out of the workforce.
Of late I?ve been noticing more men who, after dropping their kids off at school, go back to the house. I thought it was due to the fact that I live in Northern California where gender roles are more in flux than in other regions of the USA. But a recent study conducted by Jay Stewart, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicates that male joblessness is a national trend. In 1967, 2.2% of men age 25 to 54 spent the entire year without working for pay or attending school. In 2002 (the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Bureau) that figure rose to 8 percent.
What is even more fascinating about Stewart?s study is how jobless male workers spend their time. Titled ?What Do Male Nonworkers Do?, [available here], Stewart looks at the average day of a male non-worker, and compares his activity to that of an employed male worker.
Over the course of a week, non-workers spend about a quarter of their ?workday? on ?household chores,? that is, cleaning and repairs. The lion?s share of their day is devoted to recreation, specifically watching TV, socializing with friends, and playing sports and games. Nonworkers sleep nearly 45 minutes more a night than employed workers. Worthy of note: Both groups ? employed and non-employed ? spend relatively scant time on child care. Predictable, huh? Taking care of the kids still today is considered women?s work by most men. By contrast, nonworking women spend half their ?workday? engaged in household work and child care.
The latter figures on child care may be skewed, however, since only 42% of male nonworkers between the ages of 25 and 54 are married, compared to 68% of their male counterparts. Moreover, nearly half of the male nonworkers identify themselves as disabled or retired. Stewart?s analysis suggests that these men have given up on their
?employability? - the demand for blue-collar jobs has diminished significantly, and white collar men over 40 are expensive dinosaurs that can be replaced by newly minted college grads.
I don?t see these employment trends reversing direction. We better brace ourselves for the shifting of continental plates across our social fabric. I guess I?d like to see more discussion about how men squeezed out of employment can reinvent themselves to play a valued role in their families and the broader society.
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