As those in Washington work to hammer out measures to further destroy the American economy, it behooves us to look at the effect of the Great Recession on working men. I ran across this quote from CNN Money's One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
Has anyone in Washington noticed that 20% of American men are not working? That's right. One out of five men in this country are collecting unemployment, in prison, on disability, operating in the underground economy, or getting by on the paychecks of wives or girlfriends or parents. The equivalent number in 1970, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, was 7%.
Both political parties have proven their talent in ginning up outrage over the federal budget, whether it's spiraling spending or millionaires collecting tax breaks on private jets. So today a tiresome, and dangerous, debt drama unfolds in real time, freezing leaders in both parties in their respective partisan corners. Are these same leaders capable of confronting the fearsome fact that 4.3 million Americans have been jobless not just for months--but going on years? We are in danger of losing a generation of work-habituated Americans, especially men--and lawmakers can't see their way past November, 2012.
I used to ask where's the outrage? I don't ask that question anymore. I gave up on that one.
I found the McKinsey Global Institute study, which has only this to say about the issue—
Men were particularly hard hit in this recession, accelerating a disturbing trend of prime working-age males leaving the work force. From 1950 to 1970, 93 percent of prime working-age men (25 to 54 years) were gainfully employed. By 2010, that share had dropped to 80 percent, indicating that one in five prime working-age men are not working; more than half of this decline occurred between 2007 and 2010. The reasons for this decline are not fully understood: some young men are high school drop-outs who never entered the labor force (or have worked only outside the formal economy); some are "discouraged" former members of the labor force; and some are incarcerated.
Calculated Risk recently posted the labor force participation rates for prime working age (24-54) men and women.
The labor force participation rate for prime working age men stands at 89%, and has been gradually declining since measurements began after World War II. You can see that women started joining the labor force at an accelerated pace in the early 1970s.
We thus find that 89% of men between 25 and 54 years old are in the labor force, but only 80% of all such men are working. The "official" unemployment rate for all men is 9.7%, compared with 9.2% for all those participating in the labor force.
Things get more interesting if we break the numbers down further by race. The Christian Science Monitor did just in Recovering US job market is leaving black men behind. (You can ignore the word "recovering" in that headline, that's the propaganda).
The jobs landscape is bleak for any unemployed American, but for black men it's virtually a desert.
For them, the Great Recession not only led to the largest increase in unemployment for any category of American worker, but it also is pinching a lot longer. About 1 in 6 black men over age 20 in the labor force is jobless – and that number has barely improved since the economic recovery officially began two years ago.
In Detroit, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and several other US cities, Depression-era unemployment rates above 20 percent beset the black community, estimates one economic policy group, citing government data. Moreover, the problem may get worse because city governments, which traditionally employ many African-American men, are laying off workers to cope with budget shortfalls, say experts on black employment.
The change has been dramatic. The jobless rate, 7.5 percent in prerecession days, is now 17 percent – more than double the rate for white men. The ramifications are dramatic: a slide out of the middle class; greater dependence on public assistance; new strain on families, including the challenge of meeting mortgage or child-support payments; and more homelessness.
Apparently the Great Recession was not an "equal opportunity" job killer. Despite the prominence of blacks in the celebrity/sports world and the mainstream media, working stiffs are still taking it up the ying-yang. And why?
- A disproportionate number have criminal records. Black men are incarcerated at more than six times the rate of white men and 2.6 times the rate of Hispanic men, reports Human Rights Watch.
- Fewer have college degrees, which are a big bonus in the job market. Among men, 17.9 percent of blacks over 25 have college degrees, compared with 34.2 percent of whites, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
- Semiskilled jobs and unskilled jobs, which are often filled by those without a college education, are on the decline.
- Federal spending is likely to shrink, including funding for programs aimed at reducing black joblessness.
- Racism persists in hiring and firing despite antidiscrimination laws, studies show.
There's much more in the Christian Science Monitor story, so read it if you want to follow-up. The large disparity between black and white men is simply embarrassing. The Human Condition never changes much, does it?
I should also note that Americans love to put people in jail, especially non-white men. As you already know, bankers and other mostly white shysters are exempt from jail—look it up, it's in the Constitution! Well, OK, it's not in the Constitution, but if you ask them, it should be. Let's face it, growing or selling some weed is far worse than defrauding millions of homeowners and destroying the American economy. But I digress. This is a subject for another post.
It is astonishing that in a so-called "advanced" economy—in the Greatest Country The World Has Ever Seen— 20% of the men of prime working age are not working. No such society has a bright future. America's transformation into a Banana Republic remains on track.
What will these numbers look like in 2020? I shutter just thinking about it.
OT but it's time for juries to stop convicting on non-violent drug raps. Jury nullification is what brought down the 18th Amendment.
Posted by: db | 07/27/2011 at 04:13 PM