Why Are Fewer Men Working? US Employment Trends

Where did all the guys in the office go?

American women now hold 176,000 more payroll jobs than American men. That's a far cry from three decades ago when men held nearly seven million more jobs than women. What changed?

The largely male-dominated industries of manufacturing and construction have lost employment for decades due to automation and offshoring.

Meanwhile, the healthcare industry, which is 78% female, is thriving. The male unemployment rate is actually relatively low right now, but the number of men who aren't even looking for a job has reached a nearly 20-year high. Gen Z men grew up witnessing the effects of the Great Recession and corporate

America's push to bring more women into male-dominated fields.

That left many of them feeling pessimistic about their own employment prospects.

So for the guys who aren't working or even looking for work, what are they up to?

Many are living at home. Some are even embracing the trend of being a stay-at-home boyfriend with a breadwinning girlfriend.

This is all while more and more of life is happening through a screen: social media, video gaming, sports betting, further isolating men from real life. But we can fix this. We can encourage more men to enter education, healthcare, and administration, just as women were encouraged to pursue careers in

STEM. We could also expand vocational training and apprenticeships for men who are skipping college. It's time to bring a generation of young men back in from the sidelines.