Prime-Age Men May Never Return to U.S. Workforce, Fed Paper Says

A decline in demand for middle-skilled work -- a phenomenon dubbed "job polarization," because more positions are concentrated at the higher and lower ends -- has played a role in keeping prime-age men out of the job market, Didem Tuzemen, an economist at the Kansas City Fed, wrote in the paper released this week. Without job polarization, Tuzemen estimated that 1.9 million more prime-age men would have been employed in 2016.

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The participation rate of prime-age men -- those 25 to 54 years old -- has steadily decreased in the last half century. As of January, 89 percent of prime-age men were in the labor force, down from around 97 percent following World War II, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That includes people who are working, or are unemployed and actively looking for a job.