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The Opinion Pages|Millions of Men Are Missing From the Job Market
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The Opinion Pages | Editorial

Millions of Men Are Missing From the Job Market

Photo
Credit Rachel Levit
Economists have long struggled to explain why a growing proportion of men in the prime of their lives are not employed or looking for work. A new study has found that nearly half of these men are on painkillers and many are disabled.

Not Working, Not Looking

Percent of men, ages 25-54, who are outside the labor force (not employed and not seeking a job).
11.4%
Sept. 2016:
12%
9
6
Jan. 1948:
3.3%
3
0
’50
’60
’70
’80
’90
’00
’10
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
By The New York Times
The working paper by Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist, casts light on this population, which grew during the recession that started in 2007. As of last month, 11.4 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 54 — or about seven million people — were not in the labor force, which means that they were not employed and were not seeking a job. This percentage has been rising for decades (it was less than 4 percent in the 1950s), but the trend accelerated in the last 20 years.
Surveys taken between 2010 and this year show that 40 percent of prime working-age men who are not in the labor force report having pain that prevents them from taking jobs for which they are qualified. More than a third of the men not in the labor force said they had difficulty walking or climbing stairs or had another disability. Forty-four percent said they took painkillers daily and two-thirds of that subset were on prescription medicines. By contrast, just 20 percent of employed men and 19 percent of unemployed men (those looking for work) in the same age group reported taking any painkillers.

Suffering From Pain

Among men ages 25-54.
On average, percent of time feeling any pain during their waking hours:
Percent who took pain medication the previous day:
Men not in
labor force
52
44
%
%
26
19
Unemployed
30
20
Working
Source: Alan B. Krueger, Princeton University and Columbia University
By The New York Times
Perhaps worse, many of those taking painkillers still said they experienced pain daily. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that these drugs are far less effective and much more addictive than previously thought.
The connection between chronic joblessness and painkiller dependency is hard to quantify. Mr. Krueger and other experts cannot say which came first: the men’s health problems or their absence from the labor force. Some experts suspect that frequent use of painkillers is a result of being out of work, because people who have no job prospects are more likely to be depressed, become addicted to drugs and alcohol and have other mental health problems. Only about 2 percent of the men say they receive workers’ compensation benefits for job-related injuries. Some 25 percent are on Social Security disability; 31 percent of those receiving benefits have mental disorders and the rest have other ailments, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute.

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While it’s hard to generalize across a large group of people, it’s clear that job market changes can have significant health effects on the labor force. Increased automation and the offshoring of jobs have hit men with less than a college education particularly hard. Add to that soaring levels of prescription opioid addiction in the general population, and the result of the Krueger study becomes less surprising.
More research is clearly needed. In the meantime, some things could be done to help workers who’ve given up. Congress could appropriate money for the opioid addiction treatment and prevention programs they authorized in July. And federal and state governments could focus economic initiatives where long-term joblessness is highest, especially in the South, Southwest and Midwest. This could be done through targeted investments in infrastructure and education that could create jobs and bolster the skills of local workers. Millions of American men are struggling with pain and missing from the labor market, a crisis that damages families and communities.
Continue reading the main story

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david

is a trusted commenter ny 3 minutes ago
During the 1930's, FDR's CCC/WPA/PWA reduced Hoover's 25% unemployment rate to under 15% by 1937.
We might consider similar programs today.
We could also use the corporate tax structure to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.
Reward with lower corporate taxes companies that manufacture in the US and penalize with higher taxes companies that manufacture out of the US.
Carrier recently moved jobs to Mexico solely because they could pay Mexican workers lower wages. Automation had nothing to do with that move.
There are many things that can be done.
However doing them would reduce the profits of corporate America.
Higher unemployment restrains wages.
Penalizing corporations that manufacture out of the US also lowers corporate profits.
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Smoke11

Washington DC 8 minutes ago
Great outcome for the pharma industry. We offshore jobs, replace them with lower paying ones, create an ocean of men crippled by the economy, not their health, and then push them to the only financial relief the can get: disability.
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Brice C. Showell

Philadelphia 8 minutes ago
This study does not clearly capture those of us who would be willing to work through the pain with medication if employers were willing to make minor - often cost-free - accomodation. It also does not allude to those of us who have been blackballed from our profession by a large respected company who we reported to authorities for malfeasance. An employer does not have to be honest about the reason for not hiring someone; report them and you are done.
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Aaron Adams

Carrollton Illinois 9 minutes ago
Working in a pharmacy, I see a lot of these men who are unemployed and my impression of many of them is that they don't want to work. A self diagnosis of pain is difficult to disprove, as some other ailment might be. So they get the benefit of leisure time plus the pain medication and the sympathy and attention from others.
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Nartga

New York 9 minutes ago
Consider the age ranges indicated, it is safe to assume that many of these men have children. As such, why isn't the question asked if they are staying home to raise their children? With so many men out of the workforce, it is an opportunity for the sexist stereotypes to be dropped and to accept that men can raise their children while women earn outside the home just as easily as the other way around. This situation doesn't have to be a crisis for families but can instead be a move toward more traditional families where one parent spends the majority of their time raising children and tending to family needs.
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minh z

manhattan 10 minutes ago
The Editorial Board couldn't care less about this issue. They want open border and the type of free trade that kills American jobs.

The problems for job seekers, men and women, are illegal aliens and free trade deals that export jobs overseas and politicians that protect and nurture their corporate and elite overlords rather than their citizens and small businesses.

The Editorial Board isn't believable on this and many other issues, given its prior track record.
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et.al

great neck new york 10 minutes ago
It might be worthwhile to explore if some of these people were also working with pain and for how long prior to stopping work or being "laid off". Many workers "push through" the pain because they simply need the income. Pain medication requested in order to manage pain, and physicians may prescribe a "quick fix" in order to help patients manage pain while working, which is necessary for income. Pain medication does not work well so more is given (the military approach for prescribing). Patients continue to work with pain because of financial stress and underemployment. More meds...Meanwhile, the CEO's and fund managers are basking in the sun at some tony resort.....
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Banty AcidJazz

is a trusted commenter Upstate New York 10 minutes ago
My my, the narrative has changed, since the opoid addiction problem of the '60s - '70s largely in non-white populations.

Whither the concern about family structure and decline in churchgoing? Whither the bootstrap talk about how a look at the employment classifieds, and a willingness to move where the jobs are, is the answer to depression and malaise?

Black men feel no pain? I don't think so ...
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Frank

Boston 11 minutes ago
Time to update Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal:

Perhaps these undesirable, disposable men could be offered a reasonable payment in return for agreeing to be turned into pet food.
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Steve

Long Island 11 minutes ago
Really, 7 years and 8 months into this failed presidency the NYT has finally figured out the economic recovery numbers are cooked, fake, and fraudulent. Hence, we have Trump, the job creator as it were. Stay tuned. Polls cooked too. Election not over.
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CBRussell

Shelter Island,NY 11 minutes ago
I hope The Editors of the NYTimes......might NOW FINALLY understand WHY...
there is the non support of those who are NOT part of their cadre....that is
the NYTimes cadre of the top one percent of the electorate....and these
disaffected by the Media the Media Elite...are floundering in the by ways of the
nation which is ....not commuting to high paying jobs or even part of the
grand machine which powers the top percent...and these disaffected are putting their frail hopes for a living wage in the glittering glaze of Donald J.
Trump....it is their "faint hope" and believe me they do not really like Trump..
but they NEED a living wage and a way forward to support their frail and
tarnished dream...that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton ....kept propagandizing
for them....Change and Hope: Hope and Change...well those who have had
and are not seeking jobs....are in their very real and sad despair .....backing
their only false hope and change...now...not in the same old Obama and Clinton
Hope and Change...but in Trump...the only new candidate...and I believe that
is the only ..."change in their worn out pockets"//

How on Earth Editors...(you in those EXPENSIVE ties and suits////Fail to see
what the 99 percent of the USA are thinking...well I think you should ask
Tom Friedman....who Does actually think objectively...and perhaps others.
Because You Editors have failed to go past the gates of NYC and the environs
to see....and record....why Donald J. Trump...is the ONLY sad hope left.
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Dady

Wyoming 12 minutes ago
These are trumps supporters. They are not racist, homophobes etc. just people who were left behind by the political class.
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Tom

is a trusted commenter Midwest 23 minutes ago
As the graphic points out, this is a decades long problem, not just a recent trend.
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N B

is a trusted commenter Texas 24 minutes ago
If I were elected president, in my first 100 days in office, I would invite about 100 men who fit the description in this article to the White House to find out what they think should be done and why from their experience they can't find work. I also suspect that for manufacturing workers, age and a history of injury is a big obstacle to employment.
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Cynthia M Suprenant

Queensbury 27 minutes ago
I'd be very interested in how the not-working-but-suffering-pain numbers of today compare with the past. I applaud efforts to reduce intractable or chronic pain. Who wouldn't?

However, we don't have a system that supports people in doing as much as they're ABLE to do. Think about it. One of our complaints about today's economy is that it's a "gig economy" and that true, full-time jobs with full-time hours are hard to come by (this is an issue for another day, of course). So, ten or twenty hours a week would seem to be easier to come by than in the past -- you know, before we hollowed out work?

Alas, our system doesn't let people on disability earn. I know there are some fledgling programs, but disability is an income replacement system, not a support system. Once someone starts to earn, their disability payments cease and for those on Medicare's disability program, so does their healthcare.

I don't think we should forget that many, many people have significant, chronic pain and live with it or find a non-opioid way to cope. Mine involves ice packs, heating pads and a lot of NSAIDs. I know stonemasons who rise with pain, and nurses who limp during their off-hours. But they go to work. Honestly, I have no idea how to separate what someone is able to do and tolerate from what someone cannot do and is unable to tolerate. Perhaps the solution is increasing the gap between what one can earn from work and what one can receive on disability (by increasing wages).
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John

NYS 9 minutes ago
I think a key point is that for chronic pain that does not come from a specific job related behavior, like lifting, is there whether or not one works. In that case why not endure the pain at work rather than enuring the same pain at home?
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Michael

New York 27 minutes ago
This Editorial is based upon a study or research whose data appears to be manipulated to justify a thesis. All of the numbers, percentage of increase that were referenced in the Editorial must be viewed in context and scale. This is a good distraction from the circus of our Presidential Campaign .
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Regina Valdez

New York City 27 minutes ago
I've had more than a few stints of unemployment. Most people I know have, or will. During those times, I volunteered or took jobs I was way overqualified and way underpaid to do. I did it anyway, despite having experience and education. My women friends have all done the same. On the other hand, my male friends, during their time of unemployment, will refuse to take any job that isn't 'good enough for them.' When you're not working, no job is beneath you. I think a lot of the problem is men's egos keep them from doing what's necessary to survive and come out on the other side of unemployment.
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Gluscabi

Dartmouth, MA 28 minutes ago
And I wonder how many of these men felt lumped into Hillary's "basket of deplorables/irredeemables"? Now there's a pain multiplier.

Democrats, wake up.

"It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."
-- Bob Dylan
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bob ranalli

hamilton, ontario, canada 28 minutes ago
So government is supposed to come to the rescue? Maybe in Canada, but in the USA not so much.
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David Ricardo

Massachusetts 28 minutes ago
As the current Nobel Laureate for Literature might say, "the times, they are a-changing."

Let's look at just one industry for illustrative purposes. In the late 1980's, the newspaper business in the U.S. employed nearly 458,000 workers. That number has decreased to about 180,000 today. The main driver, of course, is technology as the rise of the internet has made hardcopy newspapers obsolete. There was no off-shoring to speak of, so NAFTA or other trade deals are not to blame. Advertising revenue has plummeted, since Craig's List is a far less expensive place to advertise. Retailers no longer use splashy newspaper advertising, although some supermarket chains still have weekly circulars.

Perhaps this is the "new normal," or perhaps the roaring economic growth and low unemployment rates of the latter part of the 20th century were the anomaly.
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RPB

Brookline, MA 28 minutes ago
....or, some are disabled and will not be able to ever re enter the workforce and are trying to figure out how to live on less than $500.00 per month.
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JJ

AZ 33 minutes ago
There are thousands of cities across the country that used to be "company" towns, manufacturing based jobs. The companies that supported these towns with jobs are now gone. Left behind are the men that you describe, idle, on drugs, or have already died prematurely. We don't need more studies, what we need are good paying jobs to return to this country. We have willing workers, but no jobs. Our politicians don't understand this problem, which will only get worse as the 18-30 year olds age.
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alan

fairfield 33 minutes ago
even thought I just commented I must add that at age 60 nobody i know in government or public education suffers at all. All the cops/fire I know are already retired and teachers, govt lawyers, administrators all counting down the days until a 50-60k pension without a day of lost work,, healthcare at all and a bright future
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Wayne Dawson

Tokyo, Japan 33 minutes ago
Welcome to the Brave New World: don't worry, soon, you will have "soma".

Then the reward you have received for years of hard work, dedication to educating yourself in preparation for change and your broad range of experience that should have made you employable almost anywhere will not cut you like a knife anymore.
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Billy

up in the woods down by the river 34 minutes ago

Not a word in this article about who has spent their working lives doing manual labor? Ever run a jackhammer? Dug a ditch? Moved a refrigerator up or down 4 flights of stairs?
For those who have done this type of work these statistics are not so surprising. To explain the gender gap in disability look at the obvious differences to the physical toll taken by decades of manual labor.
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