This year’s election has presented an economic mystery: why, given an apparently healthy US economy, are there so many voters, on both sides of the political spectrum, looking for dramatic change? Over the last few years, official unemployment figures have declined to pre-recession levels. And just this week, new economic data showed that households all across the income scale made more money in 2015. Yet, anti-establishment candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have drawn surprisingly strong support.
One answer is suggested by the title of Nicholas Eberstadt’s new book, Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis. With such a headline, you would think it is about bitter unemployed or low-paid workers in America—in Eberstadt’s analysis, particularly white men. Indeed, few Americans are convinced that the official unemployment rate of 5 percent gives an accurate picture of the labor market today. Dissatisfaction among workers runs high, with stagnating wages and long bouts of unemployment common. Estimates suggest that the real unemployment rate is more like 10 percent if we take into account those who stopped looking for work or those who can only find part-time work.
Read Full Article »