By now much has been written about the joke that was the collapse in the labor force participation rate. Perhaps too much, especially for a topic which as we predicted back in early 2011, would be the primary fudge factor allowing mainstream media headlines to blast America's economic renaissance. Remember: it is all about "confidence." Little, however, has been said about the constituents of this dramatic plunge to a 31 year low [4], namely the simplest distinction: that between genders. As the chart below shows, when one spreads the labor force by sex, the Friday data is particularly sad for one class of workers: Men. Because as the seasonally adjusted data shows, the labor force participation rate for men just printed at 69.8%. [5]It has never been lower.
[6]
The winners, if one may call it that? Women, whose participation rate [7], while declining and merely where it was back in 1993 last, is still nearly double where it was in 1948.
[8]
America is already elbow deep into class warfare. In order to comply with Caesarian and Napoleonic principles, and divide and rule [9]"more better", has the time come to throw in some sexual conflict into the mix as well?