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Why are American men leaving the workforce at historic rates?

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published May 26, 2026 at 11:04 AM CDT

A man walks into the shade of a building in downtown Los Angeles. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

In April, the share of American men in the workforce hit a historic low, with one in three neither working nor looking for a job. Aside from the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the highest rate of male joblessness since 1948.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks with Betsey Stevenson, economist and professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School, about why this is happening.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Here & Now Newsroom