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2024 Election Coverage

Men in the Workforce

M State/flickr

For much of the past decade, the labor market has arguably been friendlier to women seeking employment than men. That’s because the jobs that have been disappearing in large numbers, like machine operator, are predominantly male oriented while occupations that have been expanding, like health aide, mostly implicate women.

More than a fifth of American men aren’t working. The solution is obvious. As indicated by writer Claire Cain Miller, men who have lost jobs in factories should seek employment as home health aides or in other expanding categories. But men are not racing to these emerging service sector jobs.

For one, they tend to require very different skills. They also pay a lot less. Projections indicate that many men will continue to find the labor market challenging. The two occupations projected to decline most quickly from 2014 to 2024 are locomotive firers and vehicle electronics installers. These occupational categories are 96 percent and 98 percent male, respectively. There are a handful of male-dominated occupational categories expected to grow rapid, however, including wind turbine technicians, commercial divers, and ambulance drivers.

Anirban Basu, Chariman Chief Executive Officer of Sage Policy Group (SPG), is one of the Mid-Atlantic region's leading economic consultants. Prior to founding SPG he was Chairman and CEO of Optimal Solutions Group, a company he co-founded and which continues to operate. Anirban has also served as Director of Applied Economics and Senior Economist for RESI, where he used his extensive knowledge of the Mid-Atlantic region to support numerous clients in their strategic decision-making processes. Clients have included the Maryland Department of Transportation, St. Paul Companies, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Players Committee and the Martin O'Malley mayoral campaign.