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CANBERRA - Nearly 30 per cent of working-age male Australians - more than 2.2 million of them - were not in a job at any time in the past year.
The rate at which men are outside the labour force, neither in work nor looking for work, has increased fourfold in the past century, according to a Productivity Commission report.
The report said some of that could be put down to the ageing of the workforce, something that is expected to have an even greater impact in the future. But other factors include young men spending longer in education and men being more involved in child care than in the past.
The commission's research found that many prime-aged men left the labour market due to injury, ill-health, disability or premature retirement, with about half the men aged 25-64 who are not in the workforce receiving the disability pension.
"Inactive men are more likely to be living alone, to be poorly educated and of indigenous or non-English speaking migrant background," the report said.
- AAP
