The share of American men not working or looking for work remains near historic highs, raising new questions about the nation’s reliance on ever-greater levels of immigration.
A report released November 17 by the Center for Immigration Studies said the share of U.S.-born men ages 16 to 64 who are outside the labor force has returned to its level before the pandemic but remains “historically very high,” continuing a six-decade climb that predates recent economic cycles.
The update argued that mass immigration “both contributes to this problem and reduces the economic and political incentives to address it.”
The group’s director of research, Dr. Steven Camarota, said policymakers should focus on reconnecting sidelined Americans to work.
“Given all the social pathologies associated with men not working, policymakers should consider encouraging work among the millions on the economic sidelines rather than bringing in ever more immigrants,” Camarota said.
Among its findings, the CIS report said 21.7% of U.S.-born, working-age men were not in the labor force in April 2025, up from 11.3% in April 1960 and 16.9% in April 2000.
If men participated at the same rate they did in 1960, CIS said 8.9 million more would be in the labor force; a return to 2000 levels would add 4.1 million. Even among “prime-age” men, ages 25 to 54, non-participation more than doubled since 1960, reaching 11.2% this year.
The report said the trend is most acute among men without a bachelor’s degree. Non-participation for U.S.-born men ages 20 to 64 in that group rose from 7% in 1960 to 21.3% in April 2025. For prime-age men without a bachelor’s degree, the rate climbed from 4.2% in 1960 to 14.8% this year.
In related research, a 2025 working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said the long decline in male workforce attachment is measurable across generations.
The paper reported that “in 1960, 1 in 35 men between the ages of 25 and 54 were on the sidelines of the labor force,” compared with “1 in 9” by 2023. The authors estimated that around 5.0 million “missing” prime-age men would be working today if participation rates matched those of 1960.
While the Fed researchers examined racial and educational differences, they said white men have also seen a significant decline. Non-participation among white prime-age men rose from roughly 5% in the late 1970s to about 10% in 2023, narrowing an unfortunate gap with other groups. Successive generations of white men showed higher non-participation at every age, according to figures in the report.
The paper attributed the decline to both “pull” and “push” factors, including prolonged schooling, skills mismatch, disability, caretaking, and long-term economic changes. It also highlighted implications for families and public budgets, noting “families left more vulnerable to economic decline, a rising share of prime-age workers on publicly provided benefits, and slower labor force and potential output growth for the nation.”
This lack of workforce participation partly co-occurred with a strong corporate preference against white workers. In 2021 — the first year after the Black Lives Matter protests — corporate America created 323,094 jobs, and 94% went to minorities, as many companies embraced broad Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion regimes, analysis by Bloomberg revealed.
The Brookings Institution published research indicating that about half of prime-age men not in the labor force may have a serious health condition that limits work, and nearly half take pain medication daily, often prescription opioids.
The paper said labor force participation fell most sharply in places where more opioid pain medication was prescribed, adding that “the opioid crisis and depressed labor force participation are now intertwined in many parts of the United States.”
Demographers have long tracked the decline in labor force participation among U.S.-born men. Still, the tightening labor market over the past several years has sharpened debate over whether immigration offsets labor shortages or masks a deeper structural problem. CIS argued that the latter is happening.
The San Francisco Fed study echoed the long-term concern, concluding that there is “not one easy solution” for reversing the decline. Its report said rising non-participation among white men, particularly those without college degrees, underscores how the issue spans regions, industries, and demographic categories.
CIS’s press release said even immigrant men without a bachelor’s degree have experienced increases in non-participation, rising from 11% in 2006 to 13.2% in 2025, though at a slower pace than their U.S.-born counterparts. The organization argued that the scale of U.S.-born men outside the labor force challenges claims that the country faces an unavoidable shortage of potential workers.
As policymakers continue to debate immigration levels, economists say the long slide in male participation, including among white men who historically had higher workforce attachment, remains a central economic and social question.