The perils of idleness

By now, we all have heard about the Great Resignation, which describes the recent exodus of employable people from the U.S. workforce.

Yes, the COVID-19 pandemic is partly the cause, but as The Wall Street Journal reporter Mene Ukueberuwa writes in “The Underside of the ‘Great Resignation,’” the true causes are more nuanced—and historic—than people realize.

Ukueberuwa interviews Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist for the American Enterprise Institute and author of the book Men Without Work. Eberstadt explains what is happening in the labor force is not unprecedented though the levels are striking.

“Male labor force participation has dropped after most recessions in the postwar era,” he says. “When the economy recovers, it ticks up a little but never gets back to where it was.”

Eberstadt says overall labor force participation peaked in 2000 at 67% and now is 61%.

“Would we think it was a crisis if the work rate fell below the Great Depression level?” he asks. “Well, you can check that box. We’re already there.”

But what is filling the time of those voluntarily unemployed?

“ … What [males] report doing is ‘watching.’ They report being in front of screens 2,000 hours per year. … Women … say they spend seven hours a day in ‘leisure,’ a category dominated by entertainment,” Eberstadt says.

Because jobs are there for the taking, Eberstadt posits government benefits have contributed to the problem.

In his book, Eberstadt writes these programs may not have caused the male flight from work but “they at least financed it” and “the widespread contempt for many ordinary jobs may be making the problem worse.”

Ukueberuwa writes: “Instead of stigmatizing low-skill jobs, we would do better to stigmatize idleness, especially among men.”

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AMBIKA PUNIANI REID is editor of Professional Roofing and NRCA’s vice president of communications.