It's Not Just Women: Men Are Dropping Out of the Workforce, Too
The labor force challenges facing women—especially working mothers—have received significant attention. However, a quieter but important trend is also underway: men are exiting the workforce at notable rates, pushing male labor force participation to its lowest levels in decades (outside of the early pandemic period).
The latest jobs report showed 115,000 jobs added in April and an unemployment rate steady at 4.3%. Beneath those headline numbers, though, lies a more complex story. In April, the share of men either working or actively seeking work reached one of the lowest points in decades. Roughly one-third of men are currently out of the labor force.
Why is this happening?
Several factors are at play:
- **Sector shifts**: Recent job growth has concentrated in female-dominated fields such as healthcare and education. Meanwhile, traditionally male-heavy sectors like manufacturing have shed jobs.
- **Recent data**: According to an Indeed Hiring Lab report, from February 2025 to February 2026, women gained nearly 300,000 jobs while men lost 142,000.
This continues a longer-term trend. The gender gap in employment has been narrowing for decades. Women first surpassed men in non-farm payrolls in 2020, fell back during the pandemic, and overtook men again earlier this year.
Not just older men retiring
The decline isn’t driven solely by aging and retirement. Younger men are also stepping away from work. According to a Washington Post analysis, reasons include returning to school, taking on caregiving responsibilities, and—significantly—rising rates of illness or disability.
Men who have left the workforce are more likely to live at home and have never been married. There has also been a notable increase in the number of men without college degrees who are no longer working. (Women now hold more college degrees than men overall.)
A broader picture
Importantly, men’s declining participation is not simply the flip side of women entering the workforce. Women’s gains remain fragile: about 212,000 women left the labor force in the first half of 2025, with working mothers particularly affected.
One persistent barrier for men is cultural. There remains a stigma attached to entering fields traditionally dominated by women—fields that often pay lower wages—which may be preventing more men from filling available jobs.
Both men and women face distinct challenges in today’s labor market. While women contend with childcare, caregiving, and workplace flexibility issues, many men are struggling with sector-specific job losses, health problems, educational attainment gaps, and shifting social expectations. Addressing these parallel trends will require nuanced solutions rather than treating workforce participation as a zero-sum game between genders.