October 10, 2024

Economix Blog: Share of Men in Labor Force at All-Time Low

CATHERINE RAMPELL

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Friday’s jobs report for August was chock full of all sorts of bad news. Among the most distressing: The share of men actively participating in the labor force — that is, working or looking for work — was at an all-time low.

Source: Bureau of Labor StatisticsSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Just 69.8 percent of all men over age 16 were in the labor force in August, compared to a long-term average of 78.3 percent since the Labor Department began tracking these data in 1948. The share has been falling pretty steadily over the last six decades but has declined sharply in the last few years.

Some of this could be attributed to the fact that the country has been aging, so more people are of retirement age. But the participation rate has also fallen dramatically for men of prime working age, 25-54:

Source: Bureau of Labor StatisticsSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics

There are many competing (or in some cases complementary) arguments for why the share of men in the labor force has been declining.

For example, a lot of traditionally male jobs, in industries like manufacturing and construction, have disappeared, and many of the men who were displaced gave up looking for work when they couldn’t find similar jobs.

The federal disability rolls have also skyrocketed, and when people go on disability, they rarely return to the labor force:

Additionally, the share of women in the labor force rose steadily from the 1940s to the late 1990s. There is some debate about what effect this had on men’s employment. Most economists I’ve spoken with have argued that women were not “taking” men’s jobs, especially since for a long time “women’s work” was distinctly different from “men’s work” and the total employment pie was growing. At the very least, though, the entrance of more women into the job market theoretically made it less essential for married men to work, even if women tend to be in much lower-paying jobs.

What say you, readers? Why do you think the share of men working has fallen so dramatically?

Article source: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/share-of-men-in-labor-force-at-all-time-low/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Bucks Blog: The Industry With the Most Steadfast Retirement Savers

What is it about utility workers? They apparently are among the country’s most dedicated retirement savers, according to new research from Vanguard.

Larger numbers of employees of small utility companies tend to save more in their 401(k) plans than workers in many other industries, the study found. Those at utility firms with fewer than 1,000 employees had a 92 percent participation rate. (Employees at large mining companies followed, with an 88 percent participation rate.) Vanguard plans as a whole had a 74 percent average participation rate.

On average, participants in the plans of both small and large utilities saved a higher percentage of their incomes, too: their 9 percent and 8.2 percent average contribution rates, respectively, surpassed the 6.8 percent average rate for Vanguard plans over all.

The study did not delve into the details of why certain industries were better than others at signing up employees and encouraging them to save. But longer-term employees in profitable industries tend to save more in general. And it may also be that some lines of work attract people who are inclined to be better long-term planners.

Utilities, for instance, tend to have workers who can map out gas production for the next 20 years. They may also apply those skills to their own retirement-saving efforts. “Utilities have engineers, armed with their spreadsheets,” said Steve Utkus, head of Vanguard’s Center for Retirement Research.

The industry studies are part of Vanguard’s annual How America Saves report, which examined overall patterns of more than three million participants in plans administered by Vanguard.

The report notes that overall plan participation dropped a bit, as the tough economy canceled out increases in participation due to automatic enrollment. (The report was released before the most recent stock market turmoil.)

Do Vanguard’s numbers on your industry surprise you?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=804d59e513130bbfb3d5e74b153be0be