Report: 1 out of 6 young men are either unemployed or in prison
In 2014, there were 38 million men in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34; about
5 million of those young men were jobless, and 1 million were incarcerated.
Those numbers and some related longer-term trends have significant economic and budgetary implications. Young men who are jobless or incarcerated can be expected to have lower lifetime earnings and less stable family lives, on average, than their counterparts who are employed or in school. In the short term, their lower earnings will reduce tax revenues and increase spending on income support programs, and the incarceration of those in federal prison imposes costs on the federal government. Farther in the future, they will probably earn less than they would have if they had gained more work experience or education when young, resulting in a smaller economy and lower tax revenues.
The share of young men who are jobless or incarcerated has been rising. In 1980, 11 percent of young men were jobless or incarcerated; in 2014, 16 percent were (see the figure on page 3). Specifically, 10 percent of young men were jobless in 1980, and 1 percent were incarcerated; those shares rose to 13 percent and 3 percent in 2014.
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Changes in federal policy have contributed to the increased joblessness among some young men since 1980. First, employment in the military, which had long been an important source of work for less skilled young men, fell significantly during the 1990s; also, the military now employs more young women than it did in the 1980s, and it has stopped accepting people who have not graduated from high school. Second, the federal government has increased its efforts to elicit child support payments from noncustodial fathers (who now account for a larger fraction of young men than they did in 1980), and that increased enforcement has probably made employment less attractive to some young fathers, because they can now keep less of their earnings.
https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/reports/51495-YoungMenReport.pdf
The report was released by the Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO says that since crime has been decreasing during most of this period, it suggests laws and policies are to blame. Men are going to prison for lighter crimes and for longer sentences. The economy has also stagnated for especially the lower and middle class. It's also very difficult for someone released from jail to re-integrate back into society. Finding a job and a stable environment is very difficult.
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