You probably know a woman supporting an unemployed man. Maybe you’ve been that woman. What used to be an embarrassing secret has quietly become a macroeconomic data point, and now teh Federal Reserve has the receipts.
In the early 1990s, men held nearly 7 million more jobs than women. That gap gradually shrank over the last three decades, and is now gone.
This is where the narrative gets complicated — and more interesting.
“It’s fewer men entering,” Ullrich said. “Younger men today are less likely to be working than their fathers were at that same age.”
So who’s supporting them?
“There has been more of a transition where parents are supporting their adult children for longer,” she said. “The data do show that more young adult men live with their parents than women. The wealth transfer from older generations to younger generations is part of that story.”
The jobs that are growing and the jobs that aren’t tell you almost everything.
“Women are the ones who have the training for these jobs,” Ullrich said. “The growth that’s happening in the economy in terms of jobs is happening in female-dominated sectors.”
As Ullrich put it, the trend in the labor force participation gap shows no post-recession bounce, no cyclical correction, no historical parallel to prior reversals. It’s more like a one-way door.
“If you look at that overall downward trend,” she said, “it’s just been on a downward trajectory.”
The stay-at-home boyfriend is no longer just a TikTok trend. He’s a Federal Reserve data point. And the woman paying his rent is, increasingly, the American economy.
