or...not?
NYT: Millions of men in 'prime of their lives' have dropped out of work
RAW STORY
Published: Sunday July 30, 2006
Millions of American men in the "prime of their lives" are unemployed by choice, according to a front page story set for Monday's edition of The New York Times.
"Millions of men in the prime of their lives, between 30 and 55, have dropped out of regular work," report Louis Uchitelle and David Leonhardt for The Times first article in its "New Gender Divide" series.
"They are turning down jobs they think are beneath them or are unable to find work for which they are qualified, even as an expanding economy offers opportunities to work," the article continues.
Excerpts from the Times article:
Alan Beggerow has stopped looking for work. Laid off as a steelworker at 48, he taught math for a while at a community college. But when that ended, he could not find a job that, in his view, was neither demeaning nor underpaid.
So instead of heading to work, Beggerow, now 53, fills his days with diversions: playing the piano, reading histories and biographies, writing unpublished Western potboilers in the Louis L'Amour style -- all activities once relegated to his spare time. He often stays up late and sleeps until 11 a.m.
"I have come to realize that my free time is worth a lot to me," he said. To make ends meet, he has tapped the equity in his home through a $30,000 second mortgage, and he is drawing down the family's savings, at the rate of $7,500 a year. About $60,000 is left. His wife's income helps them scrape by. "If things really get tight," Beggerow said, "I might have to take a low-wage job, but I don't want to do that."
Millions of men like Beggerow -- men in the prime of their lives, between 30 and 55 -- have dropped out of regular work. They are turning down jobs they think are beneath them or are unable to find work for which they are qualified.
About 13 percent of American men in this age group are not working, up from 5 percent in the late 1960s. The difference represents 4 million men who would be working today if the employment rate had remained where it was in the 1950s and '60s.
NYT: Millions of men in 'prime of their lives' have dropped out of work
RAW STORY
Published: Sunday July 30, 2006
Millions of American men in the "prime of their lives" are unemployed by choice, according to a front page story set for Monday's edition of The New York Times.
"Millions of men in the prime of their lives, between 30 and 55, have dropped out of regular work," report Louis Uchitelle and David Leonhardt for The Times first article in its "New Gender Divide" series.
"They are turning down jobs they think are beneath them or are unable to find work for which they are qualified, even as an expanding economy offers opportunities to work," the article continues.
Excerpts from the Times article:
Alan Beggerow has stopped looking for work. Laid off as a steelworker at 48, he taught math for a while at a community college. But when that ended, he could not find a job that, in his view, was neither demeaning nor underpaid.
So instead of heading to work, Beggerow, now 53, fills his days with diversions: playing the piano, reading histories and biographies, writing unpublished Western potboilers in the Louis L'Amour style -- all activities once relegated to his spare time. He often stays up late and sleeps until 11 a.m.
"I have come to realize that my free time is worth a lot to me," he said. To make ends meet, he has tapped the equity in his home through a $30,000 second mortgage, and he is drawing down the family's savings, at the rate of $7,500 a year. About $60,000 is left. His wife's income helps them scrape by. "If things really get tight," Beggerow said, "I might have to take a low-wage job, but I don't want to do that."
Millions of men like Beggerow -- men in the prime of their lives, between 30 and 55 -- have dropped out of regular work. They are turning down jobs they think are beneath them or are unable to find work for which they are qualified.
About 13 percent of American men in this age group are not working, up from 5 percent in the late 1960s. The difference represents 4 million men who would be working today if the employment rate had remained where it was in the 1950s and '60s.
