The main findings

Our research has been restricted to just the UK so there must be caution about the extent to which the findings can be generalised to other Western economies. However, the observations that can be made about men's labour force participation in the UK are striking. At least six key points emerge.

First, the extent of labour market detachment among men is now very considerable indeed. It is well known that more young people are staying on in education and thereby delaying their entry to full-time employment. What our findings show is the dramatic rise in labour market detachment among the over 25s – a group largely clear of full-time education – and in particular among the over 50s. Unlike the gradual increase in the number of young people staying on in education, which goes back many decades, rising detachment among these men is a comparatively recent phenomenon and unlike extended stays in education it was never a sought after outcome of public policy. This rising detachment among older men has also happened during a period when the labour market was mostly plagued by a shortage of job opportunities.

Claimant unemployment comprises only a modest proportion of the total number of non-employed men of working age. The others – by far the majority – are traditionally described as ‘economically inactive’.