It's time now for today explained this is where we
break down some of the biggest stories in the news
, how we got here and where we go next
. Where are the men? A lot of economists
are asking the same question and these economists who focus
on the labor force are trying to find out what
happened to millions of men who seemingly vanished from the
workforce. Their disappearance is having a profound impact on
the U. S. Economy and it's also contributing
to inflation. Now, let me connect the dots
for you. The missing men are between the ages
of 25 and 54, which is considered prime working
age. In January 88.5% of the men in this
group were working, or at least looking for a
job that's lower than during the pandemic when 89.2 were
in the labor market and that translates into 2.7 million
missing working men. The rate for women is seven
6.9%, which is very close to pre pandemic levels
, economists say a lot of this has to do
with the way our economy is evolving. Service work
is growing while traditional blue collar work, like manufacturing
is declining here in the us. But those explanations
. Well, they're a little bit too simplistic.
Unless you're just independently wealthy. You just can't not
work. You have to pay your bills. You
got to eat. A lot of these men are
not working because they're relying on their wives partners,
parents for support a Federal Reserve Banks in the US
have studied this issue 1, 2021 study blamed the
missing workers on an uptick in male substance abuse and
heavy video game. Use another study from the Federal
Reserve Bank of boston points to a difference between men
who graduated from college and those who did not.
Those without degrees left the labor force in greater numbers
because their wages dropped so much from 1980 to 2019
, the median wage for non college educated men fell
17% adjusted for inflation, those degrees. Those people
with degrees Had a 20% pay bump. In contrast
, the Fed is raising interest rates of slow hiring
and investment because prices are so high, including wages
. So if these 2.7 million prime age working men
rejoined the workforce, that would slow the rate of
wage growth and inflation. That could be enough of
a nudge for the Fed to keep rates low.