Men are working less You

Men are working less

You probably knew that, in the U.S., women are much more active in the labor market than they were 50 years ago.

But did you know that men are working less? Much less?

While the hours worked per woman per week (including women out of the labor market and women in it) have risen 82% since 1950, hours worked by men have fallen about 17%. In both instances, the changes are largely due to changes in the numbers of persons in the workforce. The average work week for persons in the work force has fallen slightly for both sexes; but, whereas the percent of women in the paid work force has risen by about 87%, the percent of men in the paid workforce has fallen by about 16%.

The hours worked by men (an average number of hours per week, averaged over all men, including those outside the paid workforce) have fallen in every age group.

• The hours worked by men aged 25 to 64 have fallen from about 7% to about 23%, depending on the 10 year age cohort.
• Hours worked by men aged 65-74, have fallen by 63%! (Conversely, hours worked by women in this age group rose by 7%. The only age group of women whose work hours declined over the 50 year period was women from 75-99). Most of the drop in working hours by men in this age group took place between 1950 and 1970. There was very little change in the 20 years from 1980 to 2000. In fact, there was an extremely small uptick here between 1990 and 2000. (Expect future increases here, as social security retirement ages rise.)
• Young men, aged 15-24, are also working far (27%) less.

These details, and many more, can be found in "Changes in Hours Worked, 1950-2000", by Ellen McGrattan and Richard Rogerson, in the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review for July 2004. McGrattan and Rogerson are exploiting data from the U.S. census.

Why the changes? Increasingly generous social security benefits over the period 1950 have to be important for men over 65, accounting for the large percentage reductions in work for these men. But the hours worked per man (whether in or out of the work force), and the percent of men employed, dropped for every 10 year age group. Weekly hours per male worker dropped for young and old age groups, and were essentially constant (small rises on the order of 1%) for the other age groups.

It's possible that the entry of women into the work force created new sources of household income that could be substituted for men's income. However, McGrattan and Rogerson provide information on changes in weekly hours worked by person for married and single men. Except for 25-34 year olds, among the traditional working age cohorts (25-64), hours worked per single man dropped by more than hours worked per married man. The substitution argument couldn't work more strongly for single than for married men.