Employment among ‘prime age’ men declining, triggering 'alarm'

Article here. Excerpt:

'While the U.S. economy Opens a New Window. continues to show signs of strength and vitality, employment Opens a New Window. conditions appear to be worsening for one particular group: prime-age males.

According to experts from Deutsche Bank Research, employment for men between the ages of 25 and 54 (considered prime age) has declined by about 100,000 jobs for each of the past three months.

That’s despite the fact that the U.S. created 224,000 jobs in June. The professional and business services sector, health care, as well as transportation and housing were among the sectors with notable job gains.

Torsten Slok, chief economist and managing director at Deutsche Bank Securities, wrote in a note that the employment trend among prime age males was an “alarm bell” in the latest jobs report.

The labor-force participation rate – which is the share of all employed workers divided by the working age population – remain unchanged at 62.9 percent. The labor force participation rate among men has been on the decline, however – at 69 percent in June, down from 86.2 percent 70 years ago. On the flipside, the trend has reversed for women – the labor force participation rate for females was 57.2 percent in June, up from 32.8 percent in June, 1949.
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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during congressional testimony on Wednesday that the opioid crisis was another factor weighing on labor force participation among younger males.'