Sunday, March 6, 2011
Men's wage
This article explains how a lot of men are now not working. They describe the men either being in disability, retiring, are unemployed or just not in the labor force. It states that in 1969 19 percent of male's aged 20 and older were not working, while it is now 33%. It would be very interesting to see the data breakdown for this; today would more men not be working due to their wife now being in the labor force? Is the job market making these men discouraged and take time off from looking for a job? Or are more men retiring in these tough times? This data would be very interesting to take a close look eye at and really see what this unfortunate job market holds for men.
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Hmm, if you look at the past in the United States. Men usually have jobs meanwhile women work at home taking care of the house, children, errands, etc. That was the cultural norm back in the 1900s and 1950s. However, ever since then, women are getting more jobs out of their homes, so that might be a factor in declining men being discouraged or not working since there is an increased competition between the genders. That's something to consider since this is becoming a new cultural norm where women and men have equal opportunities to work.
I agree that the primary reason for this is the increasing role of women in the workplace over the past few decades which is closely tied to more and more women attending higher education. In addition, it is becoming increasingly common for men to stay at home with the children instead of the mother. After reading this article I was curious about the percentage of females working so I looked it up on the department of labor website and I found that 59.2% of adult women are labor force participants. Even though 33% of men are currently not working, still a higher percentage women are not working. I am curious how many years it will take for these numbers to be virtually equal since that is the direction these statistics are going in.
This is a very interesting article. It would make sense that less men are working now than in 1969 because of the higher percentage of women today. The concept of a stay at home dad is a lot closer to being a reality now than before and also working women are more common. Also we have to think about the baby boomers retiring; obviously that generation had a lot more male workers than female workers and those workers are now retiring or near retirement.
The shifting market for jobs that has taken place over the last 30 years may also have something to do with the current state of male wages.
We have shifted from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Males tend to dominate the manufacturing industry, so the fact that manufacturing isn't a large employer anymore may show the effect on male wages. These jobs tend to be lower paying than service jobs.
We have also seen that women are graduating from college more than men, making them more attractive candidates for service-oriented jobs.
I would really attribute this phenomenon to the aging population of the United States. While it's true that more women are working, I would still argue that the concept of a stay-at-home dad is minimal in practice and I don't really consider that a strong explanation for a jump in the non-working male population of almost 15%.
I also think that perhaps a factor could be the age cutoff used in the study; this one evaluates men aged 20 and older, which would include any males that are 20+ in college. If we accept that roughly have of college males are 20 years or older, and that the majority of those men are unemployed because of school, then this would be another valid reason for the increase in unemployed males. The percentage of the population attending college today is enormous compared to what it was, and therefore this would be another likely explanation.
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