With the traditional societal beliefs being that men should go to work and women should stay at home, it appears that these roles may be being reversed as fewer men are currently in work than ever before.
There are multiple reasons for this, which include being stay-at-home parents. Other reasons include no longer having to financially support themselves, job availability and issues such as the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Male Working Patterns in the 1950s
In the 1950s, it was seen as traditional and common for the man to go out to work and the woman to stay home to look after the children and house.
Around 97% of men were a part of the workforce in 1950, as it was seen as the man’s responsibility to provide for his family. This meant going out to work to earn the money needed to look after their wants and needs.
Fewer Men Want to Work
Go forward 70 years, and you will find that less American men are wanting to work than ever before.
While 97% of men were working in 1950, with 96% being between the ages of 25 and 54 in full-time or part-time jobs, this number has moved down to 86% in recent years. This has led many to ask one question: Why?
Low-Income Men Are Most Affected
Those who are said to be most affected by not being in the workforce are those from low-income backgrounds, as they are less likely to have received an education beyond high school.
Many jobs, especially those that offer attractive pay and benefits, often require people to have a college degree or even go to graduate school. These are something that these men simply do not have.
Recessions Bring Down the Workforce Rate
One reason there are fewer men in the workforce is recessions. For example, male employment went from 88% to 80.6% during the 2008 Great Recession.
More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a similar drop to just 78%. While this rate has been able to go back up to 86% in just a matter of years, it is still nowhere near the levels of the 1950s.
Jobs Aren’t Meeting Men’s Needs
Everyone has their preferences when it comes to looking for jobs, and many jobs aren’t even meeting the needs of men, which is why they are out of work.
This all comes down to things such as pay, especially with the rising costs of everything, job locations, tasks involved, number of hours available, the types of jobs available and the working environment.
Employers Are Not Hiring Gen Z
One of the issues that men (and women) are having is that around 40% of employers have admitted to having a bias against Gen Z workers, which means they are not hiring them and leaving this generation out of work.
Employers have admitted to doing this due to Gen Z’s lack of experience and education, which they feel makes them less employable. However, as they cannot get the jobs and placements that will give them this experience, this generation constantly struggles to find jobs that will give them experience, but employers do not want to give them jobs to get that experience.
Women Are Now Supporting Men
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, women are now supporting men with their incomes. With this extra safety net, men have less reason to rush into the world of work.
This means that if a man has lost his job, regardless of the reason, he at least has this safety net of being able to rely on his wife’s or girlfriend’s income and isn’t in as much of a rush to find a new job.
Caregiving Prevents Men From Working
Most men choose not to work because they have caregiving responsibilities. In some cases, this is because they have children, and their partners are returning to work, leaving the men at home to look after the kids.
Other reasons are due to looking after elderly relatives. With an ever-increasing aging population and with it being expensive to pay for care for their relatives, many men are choosing to look after them on their own to try to save money.
Men Want Remote Work
One of the few benefits of the COVID-19 pandemic was that remote working was introduced nationwide on a much larger scale than ever before, meaning many could enjoy working from the comfort of their homes without engaging in the daily commute.
With the return to normal, remote working is not as much of an option as before, with many companies forcing workers back into the office. Many men who are out of work don’t want a job unless it offers remote working, which is why many are still unemployed.
Traditional Female Jobs Have the Most Job Openings
The jobs where women are most likely to work, such as healthcare, education and administration roles, are the ones with the most openings, but they are putting men off from applying for them.
This is because many men want to work in a role seen as ‘manly,’ while others simply lack the skills and education needed to work in these areas and cannot get employment in them.
Access to Education Should Be Improved
One of the main issues many find is their lack of education prevents them from finding a job. As a result, it has been suggested that access to education needs to be improved to improve men’s chances of getting work.
Other things that can be improved include helping those wanting to find work, helping with childcare and caring for elderly relatives, offering paid leave and increasing the tax subsidies that those on low incomes receive so they have more money to live on.
