Must-Read: Sandra E. Black et al.: The long-term decline in US prime-age male labour force participation and policies to address it

Must-Read: Sandra E. Black et al.: The long-term decline in US prime-age male labour force participation and policies to address it: “In the last 25 years, the prime-age male labour force participation rate has fallen more quickly in the US…

…than in all but one of the OECD economies, and is now the third lowest among this group…. Very little of the decline in the participation rate can be accounted for by improvements in options outside the labour market and related reductions in labour supply. These men are not increasingly relying on a spouse’s income or government income, nor are they increasingly engaged in caregiving. Instead, the evidence is consistent with reduced labour market opportunities for lower-skilled workers, a factor that is also consistent with the decline in relative wages of lower-skilled workers. Though this demand shift has happened in other OECD economies, the consequences for participation have been larger in the US, suggesting that the relative lack of support provided by US institutions has played a role…. The starkest divergence in participation trends is by education level. In 2015, every education group had lower participation rates than in previous decades, but the decline was steepest among those with less education…