U.S. — University of Connecticut economists Remy Levin and Daniela Vidart published a study in 2026 reporting that childhood exposure to labor market conditions influences long-term labor force participation among U.S. men. The economists argued that men's beliefs about the benefits of work are shaped by labor market conditions observed during childhood.

Levin and Vidart stated that young males who observe weak wages and high unemployment among men around them form pessimistic expectations about their own prospects. They reported that this phenomenon of reduced labor force participation persisted even after men moved to a different state. "Our findings suggest that experience effects can turn short-run declines in labor demand into long-run declines in labor supply," Levin and Vidart said. They added that the effects of childhood labor market observation were stronger among men exposed to the experiences of their own racial group.

"It is the labor market environment men grow up in, more than what they observe as adults, that shapes their later participation," Levin and Vidart stated. They found that childhood exposure explained nearly all of the labor force participation dynamics for men. According to Labor Department data, the labor force participation rate for U.S. men aged 20 and older was 69.5% in May 2026, a decrease from 76% in May 2006. The male labor force participation rate peaked at 86.4% in 1950, was 79.7% in 1970, and 76.4% in 1990.

A 2022 study from the Boston Fed found that various factors contribute to men leaving the workforce. Between 2019 and 2022, young men with at least a bachelor's degree spent an average of 14 hours less annually on the job, while similarly qualified women worked three fewer hours annually on average. The Boston Fed study also concluded that non-college-educated men aged 25 to 54 left the workforce in greater numbers partly due to perceived social status compared to men with higher education. Since 1980, weekly earnings for men without college degrees have declined by 17% when adjusted for inflation, while weekly earnings for college-educated men have risen by 20% in the same period, also adjusted for inflation.

The Boston Fed study indicated that the drop in earnings for non-college-educated men over the past four decades increased their likelihood of exiting the labor force by nearly half a percentage point, accounting for 44% of the increase in their exit rate from the labor force. "If the increasing wage gap between high and low earners directly or indirectly affects men's aggregate labor supply, wage inequality might have carried wider implications to the economy than previously believed," Pinghui Wu, author of the Boston Fed study, said. Last year, the San Francisco Fed stated that men were pulled out of the labor force due to schooling or caretaking duties and pushed out due to a mismatch in skills or a disability.