Mike Rowe is cautioning his fellow countrymen in the United States to pay heed to a shocking number. The number reveals seven million men in the prime of their lives have left the labor field and have no intention of returning to it in the future.
This information originates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which also discovered males were spending almost seven hours a day participating in leisure activities like watching TV and playing video games, rather than working.
According to the most recent data from the BLS, which CBS News reported, there are, as of now, 779,000 open jobs in the manufacturing industry. This is despite the fact that millions of men are currently without jobs.
Mike Rowe with startling statistics on employment numbers. pic.twitter.com/QLrHRTrCSQ
— Sue! (@suenraleigh) January 22, 2023
Rich Uncle
When Tony Dokoupil from CBS questioned the Emmy Award–winning presenter of “Dirty Jobs” how these guys, aged between 25 and 54, were coping without jobs, the host implied that government subsidies were to blame for their situation.
“It’s nearly like someone is compensating them. It’s almost as if someone is preventing them from failing… a giant parent, “Rowe said.
At Dokoupil’s claim that an “uncle” was assisting, Rowe joined in the jest.
Here’s a mystery: 7M men of working age not working, not looking for work, and spending an additional 7 hours a day relaxing and watching TV. https://t.co/cXp2LotypX
— Tony Dokoupil (@tonydokoupil) January 26, 2023
“Might be a wealthy uncle, sure, could be an extremely wealthy uncle,” he smirked at the camera.
Jay Timmons, Head of the National Association of Manufacturers, told CBS it is not due to a shortage of jobs. Timmons, representing over 14,000 manufacturing businesses, stated there are 1.5 potential jobs for every worker.
The executive asserted, “99.9% of the corporations would state their number one difficulty is to attempt to fill those unfilled jobs.”
Dokoupil noted manufacturing positions pay the equivalent of $30 per hour, indicating “money is not the issue,” but rather “perception is the issue.”
Stigma and Preconceptions
Rowe maintained there were “stigmas and preconceptions” surrounding skilled craft employment in modern culture. These stigmas and clichés were causing schools and parents to discourage children from pursuing these high-paying, widely available vocations.
However, Karla Trotman, the chief executive officer of Electro Soft, stated many people were leaving the labor sector as a result of a societal shift in attitudes around employment.
“People, I believe, have a deep-seated want to have the sense they are valued. I mean, Beyoncé said, ‘Release your job.’ There has been a widespread sense of exhaustion and of being taken for granted, which has led to the resignation of a number of workers,” she said.
However, Rowe warned the inclination not to work reflected our “national identity.” Rowe commented, “We’ve given a lot of males a lot of alternatives, and shockingly one of those alternatives is ‘do nothing. Do nothing.'”
“I think that’s a major issue, and by the time we recognize how significant it is, it will be difficult to cool things down,” he said.
This article appeared in The Political Globe and has been published here with permission.
