How is the changing job market impacting male employment rates?
Core argument: Men’s employment-to-population ratio fell to 64.1% in April vs. 66.6% in 2019, driven by aging population shifts and manufacturing/transportation job.
Among men aged 16 and over, the employment-to-population ratio was 64.1% in April. That compared with an average of 66.6% in 2019, and 70.9% in the 1990s. A lot of that decline can be explained by an aging population: There are a lot more male retirees than there used to be. The share of women working has always been lower than men’s, but it has held up much better despite an aging population. Women’s employment-to-population ratio came to 54.5% in April, a bit below its 2019 and 1990s averages. More recently healthcare and social assistance, where women outnumber men three to one, has been the main bright spot in a dimming job market. The sector added 656,500 jobs over the year that ended in April, the Labor Department reported Friday. Absent that gain, the private sector would have shed 145,500 private-sector jobs. Among the sectors where employment has fallen over the past year: manufacturing, which has resumed its long decline after a brief, postpandemic pop, and which employs more than two men for every woman.

