One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
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One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
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Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#2What's really interesting here is that companies are reporting awesome earnings[1], yet they're still resting on their laurels when it comes to hiring.
And, I think everyone is outraged when it comes to what's going on in Washington right now.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#3I'm surprised the figure quoted in the opening paragraph would include incarcerated men along with those on disability and unemployed.
According to wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_Sta... 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the US, and 93% are male, so that's 2.1 million men.
The article also says 4.3 Americans have been jobless for months if not years. If this number includes those who are in prison, that means that nearly half of what is counted as unemployment is actually within the prison system.
Part of me says there are way too many people in prison, but the other side says, what if these people weren't in prison? Would the actual number of people competing for jobs be higher?
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#4Okay, it sucks. What do you want me to do about it?
There are not many obvious sustainable solutions that don't involve the government suddenly deciding to reallocate pork funding to major public works or otherwise taking unlikely actions which would dramatically alter the current climate.
Meanwhile, it's a good time to start a business. It probably won't create many jobs and it might not take off, but at a minimum it will be good experience and it will look better than a few blank years on the resume.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#5I think the article does a pretty good job. I've figured several times that there is no "talent shortage" but a "training shortage": companies want people with skills they learn on the job but are unwilling to actually train anyone.
So you've got a bunch of companies sitting around waiting for a miracle to happen. Maybe HR imagines that a Google product exec will fall from the sky and accept $40k a year.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#6I'm surprised the figure quoted in the opening paragraph would include incarcerated men along with those on disability and unemployed. According to wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_Sta... 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the US, and 93% are male, so that's 2.1 million men. The article also says 4.3 Americans have been jobless for months if not years. If this number includes t…
Simple arithmetic says yes, there would be more competition for jobs.
But you're talking about a dramatic change in US public policy. A first-order approximation is not sufficient, and higher-order approximations depend heavily on what guesses you want to make about the social outcomes.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#7I'm surprised the figure quoted in the opening paragraph would include incarcerated men along with those on disability and unemployed. According to wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_Sta... 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the US, and 93% are male, so that's 2.1 million men. The article also says 4.3 Americans have been jobless for months if not years. If this number includes t…
What's the alternative to being in prison and what are their prospects? I suspect that employers of the sorts of jobs that the incarcerated could find are probably not that eager to hire people with a history of drug use[-1] regardless of its legality, but I do not have any data.
[-1]I also suspect that this is the main source of the incarcerations. But I'm not a US resident, I don't have any data here, either.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#8What's really interesting here is that companies are reporting awesome earnings[1], yet they're still resting on their laurels when it comes to hiring. And, I think everyone is outraged when it comes to what's going on in Washington right now. [1] http://www.cnbc.com/id/18038403/
Or, to put it another way, companies just don't need as many unskilled workers as they did a decade ago.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#9"or getting by on the paychecks of wives"
This is pretty rampant sexism for 2011. Don't want it to go unnoticed.
Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?
#10"or getting by on the paychecks of wives" This is pretty rampant sexism for 2011. Don't want it to go unnoticed.
In what way? Not that I disagree, but please expand on your statement?