When Labor’s Lost: Health, Family Life, Incarceration, and Education in a Time of Declining Economic Opportunity for Low-Skilled Men

Abstract

The economic progress of US men has stagnated in recent decades. The labor force participation rate of men ages 25–54 peaked in the mid-1960s and has declined since then (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), while men’s real median earnings have been flat since the early 1970s. These population averages mask considerably larger declines in participation among less-educated and non-white men as well as substantial increases in wage inequality. In this paper, we seek to illuminate the broader context in which prime-age men are experiencing economic stagnation. We explore changes for prime-age men over time in education, mortality, morbidity, disability program receipt, family structure, and incarceration rates. We focus on prime-age men, namely those ages 25–54, and on the years 1980–2016 (or 2017 when possible), encompassing much of the period of reduced economic progress for low-skilled men.