a hiring slowdown.
Let's delve first into the
economic news, employers added
517,000 jobs last month --
a hiring boom far stronger than
anyone had expected.
The jobless rate dropped to
3.4%.
That's the lowest level in 53
years.
The latest jobs report also
underscores the challenges
facing federal reserve
officials, who are focused on
slowing inlation.
And as economics correspondent
Paul Solman tells us, it fuels
more questions about a labor
market that's proven more
resilient for months now.
>> A big surprise.
Reporter: Labor economist Julia
Pollak, on today's jobs report.
>> So many leading indicators
turned sharply negative in the
fourth quarter.
Investment has been slow.
Consumer spending has also been
relatively sluggish.
And yet, against that backdrop,
job growth is exploding.
Reporter: In fact, the latest
jobs report found widespread
hiring, particularly strong in
hospitality, leisure, and health
care.
The latest revisions also found
job growth was stronger than
first reported in the past two
months.
But the pace of wage growth
slowed in January, something the
federal reserve wants to see
more of before it stops raising
interest rates.
>> This report is sort of the
stuff of economics fiction,
though, at a time of rapidly
rising interest rates to have
both falling inflation and
falling unemployment is almost
unheard of.
It's almost as though we're in
the world with $20 bills on the
sidewalk and free lunches.
Reporter: President Biden didn't
go quite that far this morning,
but he did take credit for a
surge of hiring since he took
office.
>> We have created more jobs in
two years than any presidential
term within two years.
That's the strongest two years
of job growth in history, by a
long shot.
Reporter: And yet, employers
still need more workers, a
reported two job job openings
for every officially unemployed
person in America.
That's why the fed may be
concerned about the hiring boom
announced this morning.
The slowdown it wanted to see
hasn't happened yet.
But a major puzzle remains --
the cost of living is up
substantially, and yet the labor
force participation rate is even
lower than it was before the
pandemic, which helps explain
why there are millions of jobs
unfilled.
>> So, why the shortfall? Julia
: The main reason is a huge
decline in participation among
older workers.
And part of that may be driven
by long covid.
We've seen an increase in the
number of people reporting
disabilities, especially
cognitive disabilities.
Reporter: A bigger factor may be
the workforce exit of healthy
prime age working men between
the ages of 25 and 54.
One familiar explanation, says
Pollak --
Julia: The U.S. Economy has
experienced a hollowing out of
the jobs in the middle.
High wage jobs with strong
retirement benefits that used to
be common among men without
college degrees.
Now, software has eaten many of
those jobs.
And so, non-college educated men
have actually seen their working
prospects fall.
>> I do have lots of friends who
just stopped working.
They're not even trying.
They've fallen off the worforce.
Reporter: 54-year-old John
Lilly, recently laid off and
looking for work, has a few
friends without degrees who have
just given up.
How can they afford it?
>> I think they're just couch
surfing on their parents'
couches at 50 years old, waiting
for people to die so they can
inherit the house and that sort
of thing.
It's a really bizarre situation
right now.
Reporter: And some of his peers
simply balk at conforming to new
workplace norms.
>> Something like the pronouns,
the gender pronouns seem stupid
to a middle aged person.
But it's not stupid.
If you want to get a job, if you
want to get along with the work
culture, you have to keep up
with culture in general.
Reporter: But a hollowed out
labor market as the main cause
of the male worker shortfall
seems a stretch to economist
Nicholas eberstadt, who
published "Men without work" in
2016, now in a post-pandemic
edition.
>> The received wisdom is that
economic and structural change
is driving the decline in
workforce participation for
them, outsourcing, decline of
manufacturing, less demand for
less skilled work, but it's
fine as far as it goes and it's
really only part of the story,
and I don't think it's even most
of the story.
Reporter: And most of the story
is?
>> Disability payments, drop
outs, unintended consequences of
our social welfare guarantees,
and the invisible ex-con
population, which is now maybe
25 million people in the united
States.
Reporter: And when you say
ex-con, you mean they are
formerly convicted?
Not necessarily formerly
incarcerated.
>> Only one in 10 persons who
has a felony conviction in their
background is currently serving
in prison.
It's an order of magnitude
bigger than our incarceration
situation in the United States.
>> It's been almost impossible
to get a job that pays a living
wage.
Reporter: Mike Tyner is one such
American, though he did serve
time on a bank robbery
conviction.
A college grad with a 3.7 GPA,
even some grad school, he's had
six actual job offers all
rescinded because of his felony
conviction.
>> I get it, you don't want me
working in a bank, if I robbed a
bank.
I get you don't want me working
around money, if I have had an
issue with money in the past.
But I can't clean a bus?
Reporter: Okay, felony
convictions, hollowing out
economy, government benefits,
long covid, a longish list.
But even that's not all.
>> Child care is very expensive
and hard to acquire right now.
Reporter: 33-year-old new
stay-at-home dad Tom Mcfarland
offers yet another reason.
>> Financially, it turned out to
be where child care was
basically going to take up our
whole paycheck.
So I chose to become a stay at
home parent.
Reporter: His wife, a
veterinarian, supports the
family on her salary.
No surprise, as women keep
outpacing men in college
degrees, and thus, in earning
potential.
>> In our case, it made
financial sense and good
professional sense.
Reporter: Has he noticed more
men his age becoming house
husbands?
>> Yes.
It made me feel more comfortable
making the decision.
Reporter: And how does he
respond when asked why he's not
working?
>> I'm currently working.
I'm just working as a parent at
home.
I'm very proud to become a stay
at home parent and, you know,
very proud to be a father.
Reporter: So the moral of this
story is pretty clear -- prime
age men have dropped out for
lots reasons, contributing