Men Without Work

Envision Board Member Jim Golembeski reviewsby Nicholas EberstadtAnd offers thoughts about the Wisconsin corrections system

Envision Board Member Jim Golembeski reviews and offers thoughts about the Wisconsin corrections system.

Our ENVISION Upward Mobility Signals Team recognizes that unemployment is a serious barrier to financial success. We have also identified a continuing worker shortage as a key driver in the coming decade for our region.

So, I read Nicholas Eberstadt’s book, Men Without Work, a 2016 study of the American workforce, in which he concludes:

America is now home to an immense army of jobless men no longer even looking for work—more than seven million alone between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five, the traditional prime of working life.

His recent edition provides a post-pandemic introduction as well. In it, he notes that COVID relief financial support programs might have unwittingly worsened the situation, particularly for older workers and the least wealthy portion of the workforce by providing temporary financial support. Those programs, however, have ended.

A quick look this morning (May, 2025) at Job Center of Wisconsin, the state’s job board system, showed over 2,100 job orders for just Brown County. A job order may represent more than one opening as well. An aging workforce, low birth rate, and out-migration from the state are all putting pressure on our labor supply. Our manufacturers report attracting and retaining skilled workers as their biggest challenge. My colleague, Dennis Winters, State Labor Economist, projects that Wisconsin will have a labor shortage of over 122,000 workers by 2031.

My friend, Paul Rauscher, retired owner of a local manufacturing business, has frequently tried to convince me that a large number of people in our community have voluntarily opted out of the workforce. They are either unwilling or unable to get and keep full-time employment. He likes to say, “Put their name on the back of their jersey and get them in the game!” He and I have both been working with The Joseph Project to do just that. But we have not had much success in finding these workforce dropouts.

Eberstadt’s book provides a wealth of data. Continue reading here