28: 2. Demographics and Despair: The Activities of Men Not in the Labor Force Nicholas Eberstadt Book: Men Without Work (Post-Pandemic Edition) Eberstadt investigates the characteristics of the 7.2 million men "not in the labor force" (NILF) as of 2015. Fore
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John Batchelor
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🗓️ 26 October 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
Eberstadt investigates the characteristics of the 7.2 million men "not in the labor force" (NILF) as of 2015. Foreign-born men and married men with children are highly likely to be at work, regardless of educational background. Conversely, those who are neither employed nor in education or training (NEET) report engaging in remarkably little civic life, charity, or household help. Time use surveys suggest these NEET men spend the equivalent of a full-time job—around 2,000 hours a year—watching screens. This inactivity is linked to profound misery, as almost half of these men report taking pain medication daily, contributing to rising "deaths of despair" (suicide, overdoses, cirrhosis).
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI on the world. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm John Batchel with Nicholas Aberstadt. |
| 0:09.2 | Nick Aberstatt is the author of Men Without Work. |
| 0:12.4 | This is a post-pandemic edition. |
| 0:14.3 | We'll get there, but we have to work through the mystery of 10 million men without work, |
| 0:20.4 | not looking for work, and surviving in some fashion |
| 0:23.9 | in this rich and dynamic culture. Who are they? Nick, this is a mystery that can be solved by |
| 0:31.5 | categories. I learned from you that a married man with children and foreign born is guaranteed to be at work. |
| 0:40.8 | Guaranteed. |
| 0:41.9 | It's automatic. |
| 0:44.3 | And those categories, if not followed, oh, education, with a high school or better education, guaranteed to be at work. |
| 0:52.4 | And if those categories you're not followed, |
| 0:55.2 | that's who they are, correct? The odds are really striking here, aren't they? So if you are a |
| 1:03.8 | foreign-born guy in the USA, it doesn't matter what your ethnicity is or practically what your |
| 1:10.3 | educational background is, |
| 1:12.5 | you're more likely to be in the labor force than your native-born counterpart. |
| 1:18.3 | And with respect to marriage, it's amazing how much lower the work and labor force participation rates are for guys who've never been married than for guys who are married. |
| 1:36.7 | By the way, also, John, interesting fact, even for guys who are not married, if they have kids under the same roof, they're way more likely to be looking for a job or working. |
| 1:49.4 | It's something like the provider impulse, you know? |
| 1:52.5 | It is. And we have another term that's obvious now, the N-I-L-F, not in the labor force. |
| 1:59.3 | As of 2015, when Nick had the most recent statistics for his publication, |
| 2:05.0 | there were 7.2 million men, not in the labor force. We've identified a couple of details about |
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