Are We Losing The Twenty-Five To Fifty-Four Year Old Men?ByRaymond D. Matkowsky
Men have been steadily leaving the American workforce. This has occurred even though there are millions of job openings that haven’t been filled. The question is why?
The Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank found that 25% of men ages between 25 and 54 years old were not currently working. Some said they were looking for work. Others were choosing not to.
Reasons given during the survey were caregiving, health deterioration, retiring early and going to school. The United States Chamber of Commerce found that half of those surveyed were not willing to take jobs that did not offer the option of remote work. Remember, remote work maybe equivalent to a $3,000 raise and an untold amount of saved time.
Ages 25 to 54 are a person’s prime working years. This is the backbone of the United States’ (U.S.) labor force. However, it appears that non-college educated men are dropping out from the labor force and weakening this backbone. Too many employers are asking for a college background when one is not really needed. In the meantime many jobs go unfilled. It is difficult to separate non-college educated men from the total number of men in the labor force. Only scant data exists. Nevertheless men in this age group, in 2020, represented 68.2% of the workforce. In 2029 it is projected to be 66.3%. Most of this steep loss will be in high school only educated men.
Status
For many workers a job not only represents financial worth but also their social status. Compared to college educated men, they consider themselves as “second class workers.” What is worse, many employers consider them as “second class workers” to be exploited.
Let me give you an example. Many years ago, I was in charge of a quality control lab. The company I worked for had a twenty five year old “gofer” employed. I started to teach this person how to do titrations with the idea that he could help out in the lab during his non-busy times. I was quickly stopped and told that that was not what he was hired to do. Basically, I was told that there was no future for him at this company. The company also failed to see the benefit to itself. This is the backdrop that many workers contend with and this is why many men just drop out of the workforce.
Only about 25% of high school graduates go on to college and many of these do not finish. There are many jobs in society that do not require a college degree but require some training. Do not count on vocational school training. They are usually a year or two behind what is needed. Train people to do your jobs yourself. Employers will need these men especially since many baby boomers are now retiring and there is also a trend to bring back manufacturing jobs to avoid supply chain issues.
Companies also need to realize that although baby boomers are no longer producing, they are however still consuming. Industry is going to need to produce as much or more goods as before. They are going to need workers to do so. It doesn’t make any sense to discourage those that you need.
Every new hire, college educated or not, requires training. Many times this training is specific to the company and its customers. It can’t be said too often, since you have to train, train an individual in skills meeting your needs. Make sure this individual knows the valuable contribution such skills are making.
Multitude of Employer Problems
What I am suggesting here is not going to solve all your worker needs. It’s not something to ignore either. There are more jobs available than there are people to take them. If you ignore this specific problem, you will only exacerbate the overall situation further. Solving the vacant job situation in the United States requires action in several areas.
This is only one small area of the whole problem. Addressing it however, will make the task at your company easier. It might make the company excel also. There are stories of employees being so grateful that they would go out of their way to bring in new business.
If you have any comments, let us know. Email me at rdm@datastats.com. We will try to print it in our next newsletter.
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