Men Without Work: The Immigration Angle

Brent Orrell and Keith Humphreys published a thoughtful piece in The Atlantic last week on the issue of . Although the authors seem open to several possible remedies, they underplay the role of immigration — as one of the causes of the labor force dropout and, more important, as a disincentive to pursuing a full set of solutions.

To quickly recap the problem: The share of working-age U.S.-born men who are “out of the labor force,” meaning neither working nor looking for work, has been gradually rising for decades. It was 11 percent in 1960, 15 percent in 1970, 17 percent in 2000, and 22 percent this April. We know from the American Time Use Survey that these men have not abandoned work because they are doing something else productive, such as taking care of a loved one or volunteering in the community. Instead, they are using their free time mainly to sleep, watch television, and play video games.

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Jason Richwine

Jason Richwine is a public-policy analyst and a contributor to National Review Online.

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Brent Orrell and Keith Humphreys published a thoughtful piece in The Atlantic last week on the issue of . Although the authors seem open to several possible remedies, they underplay the role of immigration — as one of the causes of the labor force dropout and, more important, as a disincentive to pursuing a full set of solutions.

To quickly recap the problem: The share of working-age U.S.-born men who are “out of the labor force,” meaning neither working nor looking for work, has been gradually rising for decades. It was 11 percent in 1960, 15 percent in 1970, 17 percent in 2000, and 22 percent this April. We know from the American Time Use Survey that these men have not abandoned work because they are doing something else productive, such as taking care of a loved one or volunteering in the community. Instead, they are using their free time mainly to sleep, watch television, and play video games.