Gibs

Article is from summer 2019, during the Trump boom. Labor force participation was improved during the Trump boom, was held up as a strength. Its likely declined now to lower than the Obama doldrums.

This is the key takeaway though:

Research from the Kansas City Federal Reserve noted that the nonparticipation rate among prime-age men rose to 11.4 percent, from 8.2 percent in the two decades ending in 2016.

So the number of men actually declining to work has only gone up about 3% in 20 years, the rest is due to either automation and less demand for non-skilled labor positions.

This mostly illustrates a changing economy more than it proves men don’t want to work. A man without a job is like a man without an identity, because nobody ever asks who you are, they ask what you do.