Have Declining Economic Prospects Reduced Young Mens Marriage Prospects?
As noted, the labor market prospects of less-educated men of all races and ethnic groups worsened between the mid-1970s and 2007. To what extent have these economic difficulties contributed to the family structure changes associated with the transition to adulthood? William Julius Wilson, in The Truly Disadvantaged, suggested that the decline in manufacturing jobs, the suburbanization of employment, and increased employer demand for educated workers reduced the probability that less-educated, inner-city males could find jobs that could support a family.58 Wilson argued that their declining economic prospects made them less marriageable and contributed to reductions in marriage and increases in non-marital childbearing. But researchers investigating the correlation between increasing non-marital childbearing and male labor market problems have had a difficult time establishing a causal link. David Ellwood and Christopher Jencks review the evidence and conclude that “no consensus has eme
