Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Not looking

America's un-employment figures are based on the number of people looking for work but unable to find jobs. According to some, we in the U.S. now have low un-employment, maybe even a situation of "near-full employment."

But you could say that one group is in worse shape than ever. It's 25-54-year-old men in their prime working years who - what? - are not even looking for work, 7 million of them.

Just ten percent of these men are students. What are the rest of them doing? "Socializing, relaxing, and leisure."

"Time-use surveys suggest they are almost entirely idle—helping out around the house less than unemployed men; caring for others less than employed women; volunteering and engaging in religious activities less than working men and women or unemployed men."

Their families need them. Society needs . . "to bring these detached men back—into the workplace, into their families, into civil society."

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