Men are vanishing from the workplaces of America, and Michigan workplaces are a prime example.
The group of unemployed men between the ages of 25 and 54 has more than tripled nationwide since the 1960s. A recent piece in the New York Times explored the lives of these "prime-age" men who are vanishing from the workforce.
Of those men, 16% are now unemployed. But in Michigan, that number is much higher.
“We first started noticing this trend more than forty years ago – late sixties, early seventies,” said Michigan State economist Charles Ballard.
He went on to say that 2009 and the Great Recession brought the highest numbers of unemployed men – at that time, 20% of prime age men were unemployed.
“Now that’s down to 16%, which is an improvement, but that is still, for the nation as a whole, much higher than we had 40 years ago,” Ballard said. “And, as you said, in many parts of Michigan, the numbers are a lot higher than that.”
Thirty-three percent of prime-age men in Wayne County are unemployed, 32% in Genesee and 31% in Saginaw.
The causes of this vast unemployment are diverse, Ballard said. To hear more, listen above.
