>> Doug, at the late-1982 peak, 85.2% of prime-age men (25-54) had jobs. In
>> November 2008, only 84.9% had jobs. If we lose another 2.5% of
>> employment, obviously that rate will go down even further. It will
>> probably be the lowest since the Depression.
>>
>>
>
> Are we looking at discouraged workers here, or is it e.g. grad school,
> the informal sector, severe disabilities? I have poor intuitions about
> the magnitudes everything signifies here.
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If you're asking what these non-working men are doing, the answer is it's not clear. It's mostly concentrated among less-educated men, so it's not about grad school or trust funds. There's been a big increase in the disability rolls, but it's just as likely that could be a symptom rather than a cause of weak participation. Probably there's a good number of men living off wives and girlfriends. I don't know, but I bet if there were plentiful good-paying jobs, the employment rate would be a lot higher.
SA