In the last decade, men, especially working-class and middle-class men, have had very different experiences in today's economy from the women around them. The manufacturing sector has lost almost six million jobs, nearly a third of its total work force, and has taken in few young workers.
Traditional manufacturing is unlikely to play the same role in the economy as it once did.
Millions of domestic manufacturing jobs have been lost, since the 1960s, in search of lower cost labor rates in Asia and Central/South America. Over the last decade, domestic jobs in health, education and services have been added. The job categories projected to grow over the next decade include nursing, home health care and child care.
Of the 15 categories projected to grow the fastest by 2016 — among them sales, teaching, accounting, custodial services and customer service — 12 are dominated by women. These are not necessarily the most desirable or highest-paying jobs. But they do provide a reliable source of employment and a ladder up to the middle class.
It used to be that in working-class America, men earned significantly more than women. Now in that segment of the population, the gap between men and women is shrinking faster than in any other.
Many states in the U.S. have cut government services over the last few years, but the jobs that remain are relatively stable. More important than the particular jobs available, which are always in flux, is a person’s willingness to adapt to a changing economy. These days that usually requires going to college or getting some job retraining, which women are generally more willing to do. Today, two-thirds of the students at the local community college are women.
“An important long-term issue is that men are not doing as well as women in keeping up with the demands of the global economy,” says Michael Greenstone, an economist at M.I.T. and director of the Hamilton Project, which has done some of the most significant research on men and unemployment. “It’s a first-order mystery for social scientists, why women have more clearly heard the message that the economy has changed and men have such a hard time hearing it or responding.”
As the usual path to the middle class disappears, what’s emerging in its place is a nascent middle-class matriarchy, in which women pay the mortgage and the cable bills while the men try to find their place.
Source: The New York Times Magazine, September 2, 2012
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