Washington, D.C. — For the first half of 2025, young men’s unemployment rate grew as their labor force participation declined and stagnated. A new Center for American Progress analysis examines U.S. men’s labor market trends to uncover how Gen Z men’s employment stacks up to previous generations and where they continue to face challenges.
Some of the key takeaways from this original analysis include:
- More young men have become unemployed in 2025, but unemployment remains historically low. Young men have a relatively low unemployment rate (10.6 percent in July) compared with the nonrecessionary historical average of 12.7 percent. But their unemployment is still rising, and there is some speculation that the reason for this trend is due to the majors and occupations of post-college-age men.
- Unlike Gen Z women, Gen Z men’s labor force participation is tracking with that of Millennials but falls behind older generations. For Gen Z and Millennial men, entry to the labor market has trailed Gen X and Baby Boomers. But women have raced past their predecessors’ workforce participation once they hit age 25. Even so, women’s workforce participation still lags far behind that of men.
- The male-female college enrollment gap has grown for people ages 18 to 25. The COVID-19 recession uniquely affected college enrollment trends, resulting in an enrollment drop-off. This analysis finds that from 1976 to 2023, a rising share of students enrolled in school full time and pursued four-year degrees as opposed to two-year options. As women’s enrollment trends outpaced men’s, it resulted in male college enrollment falling behind women’s. By 2023, there was nearly a 7 percentage point gap between young men’s and women’s college enrollment.
- Gen Z men who are enrolled in college are less likely to be in the labor force than are Gen Z women. Fewer male students have decided to seek jobs while in school: The labor force participation rate of 18- to 25-year-old Gen Z men enrolled in college was 43.3 percent, compared with more than 50 percent for college-enrolled men in all prior generations at the same age.
- Young men’s postsecondary technical school enrollment spiked in 2023. In 2023, there was a 38 percent increase in young men’s enrollment rate in postsecondary technical school.
“While young men have been outperforming previous generations in some measures, the recent rise in unemployment and low labor force participation is still cause for concern,” said Sara Estep, economist at CAP and co-author of the issue brief. “There is still more to be done to support Gen Z men in the labor force. Postsecondary training and education are important avenues to increase economic stability among young people.”
Read the issue brief: “Gen Z Men at Work: 10 Facts About Young Men’s Employment Trends” by Sara Estep and Christian E. Weller
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].