As many as 7 million Americans who could work, aren’t. These are people who have dropped out of the workforce - they have given up on finding a job or are simply not looking.
And similar trends can be seen in other wealthy countries. So what is going on?
Ed Butler speaks to Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute.
He’s recently updated a book which examines the extraordinary increase in men – and it is mainly men in the US - who’ve decided they don’t just want to quit their jobs, they want to leave the workplace for good. And it’s something that’s been going on since the 1960s.
Presented and produced by Ed Butler.
(Image: Men on a building site. Credit: Getty)