Dead Suit Walking (Can Manhood Survive the Latest Recession?)

Newsweek: Dead Suit Walking

If this isn't the Great Depression, it is the Great Humbling. Can manhood survive the lost decade?

... The suits are “doing worse than they have at any time since the Great Depression,” says Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. And while economists don’t have fine-grain data on the number of these men who are jobless—many, being men, would rather not admit to it—by all indications this hitherto privileged demo isn’t just on its knees, it’s flat on its face. Maybe permanently. Once college-educated workers hit 45, notes a post on the professional-finance blog Calculated Risk, “if they lose their job, they are toast.”

The same guys who once drove BMWs, in other words, have now been downsized to BWMs: Beached White Males.

Through the first quarter of 2011, nearly 600,000 college-educated white men ages 35 to 64 were unemployed, according to previously unpublished Labor Department stats. That’s more than 5 percent jobless—double the group’s pre-recession rate. That might not sound bad compared with the plight of younger, less-educated workers and minorities, but it’s a historic change from the last recession, when about half as many lost their oxford shirts. The number of college-educated men unemployed for at least a year is five times higher today than after the dotcom bubble. In New York City, men in the 35-to-54 kill zone have lost jobs faster than any other group, including teenage girls, according to new data from the Fiscal Policy Institute. ...

Also, see chart about a survey, Sorry, He's Toast

Comments

[P V Ariel]

Yes, Indeed He can survive, the signs are showing LOL
Thanks for the alert question and the note
best regards

[DennisS]

Truly, it is a very tough time to find employment - whether 19 or 49. The article was mostly about white collar workers, but it is extremely difficult for the blue collar workers right now as well. It's unlikely that things will change anytime soon.

I was laid off (from a job I truly loved, but had been at for less and 5 years) for 6 months before spending my retirement money to move and obtain a graduate degree in a completely different field. This got me an entry level job in the field, making half what I previously made.

When I initially got laid off, I figured I would have a job in no time. Previously, if I had gotten an interview, then I got the job offer. The depression was crushing as I was rejected - not even granted an interview in jobs for which I was over-qualified - but would have willingly done and maintained a good attitude. I could have offered significant potential, but was not even given a chance.

Now I see so many white male zombies looking for any work they can find, but being turned away like they have leprosy. I know now that I can't possibly leave my post until I have a firm job offer elsewhere. But even that seems impossible. I can't get folks to even acknowledge they have received my application and resume.

I've considered becoming a missionary and going to a country where the cost of living is very low - but even finding the financial support to do that is extremely difficult.

Some might suggest this is a great stagnation, but I tell you it is a time of very major change. Potentially we will get to the point where even the doctors will be looking for work, and taking chickens in barter like they did 100 years ago. Community will become more important, as will faith. The second marriages (because of so many men having problems with the previous expectations) will be much better and stronger as a true team.

[catholic]

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