It’s hard to say why the unemployment rate for young men is rising, but it’s a disturbing trend.
Despite all the drama about the weakening jobs numbers, the US labor market is actually doing OK. There is one major exception, however: if you happen to be a young man.
While the overall unemployment rate was still a respectable 4.2% in July, for young men aged 20 to 24, it was 8.3%, which is near recession levels — and for recent college graduates, the annual rate is 5.3%. Both of these numbers are about double the comparable figures for young women. During the pandemic, the economy was so bad for working women that it inspired the term “she-cession.” Could the US now be headed for a “he-cession”?
Men have dominated the labor market for most of the modern era, and still earn more than women, but the jobs market has not been kind to men for the last few decades. Many men, even in the prime of their lives, aren’t working. And going to college is no longer an automatic way to improve your job prospects.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg Opinion (paywall)
___________________
Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
Photo by Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images