Why so many men in the US have stopped working

America’s men aren’t working at the same rate they used to. Experts are still trying to figure out why.

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• The share of prime working-age US men with a job has declined from about 96% in the 1950s to 86% today. 
• Some positive factors, like the rise of working women, have contributed to the decline. 
• But there are also several more concerning reasons men aren’t working like they used to. 

America’s men are working at much lower rates than they used to — and the reasons are a mixed bag of positive and negative economic news.

In the early 1950s, as many as 96% of prime working-age American men, who were between the ages of 25 and 54, had jobs. Due to a mix of factors, from the effects of recessions to those of globalization, only about 86% do today, below the OECD average of other developed countries as of 2022.

It’s left many men struggling to support themselves financially. Plus, the longer they’re out of the workforce, the higher the chances they’ll experience a loss of dignity and mental health challenges, experts say.

Here’s why the decline of working men might be happening.

It could be all about recessions

Since the 1950s, whenever the US economy fell into a recession, the rate of working men tended to suffer a lasting blow.

When the economy entered a recession in 1953, the share of prime-age men with jobs dropped from 96% to 92.8% and never fully recovered to the pre-recession level.