Missing Men in U.S. Workforce Risk Permanent Separation

[Purveyor]

By Kasia Klimasinska Sep 18, 2014 12:01 AM ET

Tom Kaminski is back at work, three years after losing his job as a human-resources manager and dropping out of the labor force for a time to go back to college.

Kaminski, 43, dipped into his retirement savings while he earned a master’s degree. The added credential helped him land the position at Intuitive HR LLC, a consulting company in Woodbridge, Connecticut, last September.

“It was always my goal to come back to work,” he said. “I thought I was a very good human-resource person and I thought I had a lot more to achieve.”

Too few men like Kaminski are returning to work in a decades-long puzzle about prime working-age males ages 25 to 54 falling away from the U.S. labor force. Their participation rate slid to 88.4 percent in August in a steady decline from 97.9 percent in 1954. Over the last 10 years, the slump was the steepest for those ages 25 to 34.

About 7 million male Americans waste their best years of wealth formation not employed or even trying to find work. The pattern will persist, economists say, putting some men -- particularly those without a college degree -- at risk of permanent isolation from the job market.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-18/missing-men-in-u-s-workforce-risk-permanent-separation.html

[DavidDvorkin]

1. There's no puzzle about the older ones

54 is old enough to suffer age discrimination after you've been laid off.

And no matter what your age, if you've been out of work for a while, that's seen as a reason not to hire you.

[4dsc]

2. Low wages might be the biggest problem here

Something tells me that when these men go out looking for work they find only low paying jobs. That in itself would turn off may people who once perhaps held better paying jobs.