ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 114, APRIL 2004

Home | Contact Us | Newsletters

The changing face of the job market is creating a group of men in our community who are in danger of becoming a separate underclass, living on the edges of society.

An expert on labour issues believes the death of the manufacturing sector, the dramatic drop in  full-time work and a lack of post high school education is forcing at least one in five men aged  between 25 and 45 to opt out of the workforce, forever.

National Institute of Labour Studies director Professor Sue Richardson said these men would  also stay single and not have families because they would never have the economic security to  put down roots. “They may not be very attractive marriage partners,” Professor Richardson said.  “These men  will drift to the margins of society, poor and lonely. 

The job market is not generating jobs for these men. 

There’s been a depressing lack of full-time work.  A man cannot support a family on a part-time wage” she said. One in five men aged 25-45 years, with no post-high school education, will never have a full-time job.

One in three men aged 35 to 45 will be unemployed or unattached. In 1976, 93 per cent of the 35 to 45 age group had work.

Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family

NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN