What happens when young men don't work?

From a report by The Institute of Family Studies (IFS)

[WOTS Although this article is about the effect of age 18-29 males Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in the USA, the UK are seeing a long-term rise in young male unemployment (although not so severe) and so the lessons should be relevant to us.]

A sobering report, "America’s Demoralized Men", on young men in America makes it plain: Men without work, purpose, or a family to provide for tend to flounder. And when men flounder, they don’t suffer alone. The women in their lives suffer. Their communities suffer. The wreckage is shared.

Being a breadwinner is not the problem, but not having that privilege and responsibility might be. 

Like many industrialised nations, the USA has already witnessed the devastating toll that deindustrialisation has taken on men, their families and communities across middle America. Car plants and other key manufacturing industries have closed, laying off hundreds of thousands. Such buildings sit empty for years and then maybe replaced by service industries e.g. data centres, employing just a few hundred people.

According to researchers at the Economic Innovation Group, the disappearance of working-class jobs in such communities is a big reason that rates of violent crime, drug use, broken families, and childhood poverty are higher than the national average. It’s a cautionary tale: When men aren’t working, society suffers.

The IFS report shows that the problem of male unemployment and underemployment has spread beyond the deindustrialised heartland. In 1980, 25% of young men (ages 18-29, not in school) were not working full time. Today, that number has risen to 33%.

The problem is even bigger than it seems. That’s because young men still view work as a key indicator of their successful entrance into adulthood, and so it follows that their inability to find or hold down a full-time job would cause embarrassment or despair. That’s what the IFS report found. A stunning 42% of respondents either somewhat or strongly agree that they are “failures.” This is especially true for young men who aren’t working at all.

Emanuel Barcenas, who at 25 thought by that time he’d be well into his career. Instead, even after applying to more than 900 jobs, he was unemployed and living at home. He didn’t even have enough money to date, “I want to be an adult. I need to move forward, but right now, I’m just stunted. I’m trying my best, but I guess my best isn’t good enough.”

Out-of-work men don’t just suffer financially, but emotionally and socially. Today’s men are between two and three times as likely as women to suffer “deaths of despair” - death by alcohol, drug use or suicide, and such deaths are more common among men who are unemployed or underemployed.

A lack of full-time work hinders yet other traditional markers of adulthood: dating and marriage. This matters because most young men still want to get married. But 59% of IFS's survey of 18- to 29-year-old respondents are not married and not dating anyone seriously. Indeed, in a world where dating has become much more daunting and difficult, especially for men who are not working at decent-paying jobs, it’s getting harder for men to find their way to the altar.

All this matters because men are more likely to flourish when they see themselves as providers. Men do better when they feel needed - and being a reliable breadwinner makes them feel needed.

Having a full-time job is also a traditional marker of being an adult. The report comments, “the feeling of having reached full adulthood is ... highly correlated with the old benchmarks: being married and a parent, working full time, and completing college or trade school. Hence, even among men ages 24-29, less than half (41%) report ‘definitely’ feeling like adults.”

A majority of young men say that it is extremely or very important to be financially independent from their parents (81%) and to be able to provide for others (72%). Breadwinning matters - and makes a difference in how young men feel about themselves.

Read the full article here.

Of course, one could look to the Government to 'do something', which I'm sure they say they are doing e.g. apprenticeships, etc. However, could the Church provide help here - not only praying and ministering to the 'identity' issues but also practically? Pursuing the call of Jeremiah 29v7?

Many churches are providing job clubs and skills development. See the following blogs for some examples:
Jericho social enterprises
The Lantern Network
CrossPurpose
Purple Shoots