Male Average is Over, sentences to ponder male fact of the day

In 1980, 66% of high-skilled men worked in cognitive occupations. Over the next 20 years, this proportion fell by 3 percentage points (pp) to 63%. Interestingly, this fall in the probability of working in a COG job was accompanied by a 3 pp rise in the fraction of college educated men not working (unemployed or out of the labor force).

That is from recent research by Cortes, Jaimovich, and Siu (pdf).  You will note that the chance of a woman working in those jobs rose over the same period, even though the supply of educated women relative to the supply of educated men went up a great deal over that same time period.  They find that the increasing importance of “female-oriented” social skills is a major reason for why women have so increased their presence in cognitive occupations.

Similar claims are very much a theme in my last book, Average is Over, so I am happy to see them verified in a more definitive manner.

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