In several parts of metro Atlanta, more than 50 percent of men ages 25-54 have not been working in recent years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal census data.
The phrase "not working," or nonemployment, is key — and isn't the same thing as unemployed. The Times' data is averaged from the American Community Survey's 2009-2013 estimates and includes men who are officially unemployed as well as those who are "disabled, discouraged, retired, in school or taking care of family," or otherwise out of the labor force.
The analysis breaks down the percentage of nonemployment, by census tract, for men ages 25-54. Census tracts "typically follow city or town lines, although they are much finer in large cities," according to the Times.
The story's interactive survey of metro Atlanta shows wide variance: The reported number of men not working is below 10 percent in parts of Cobb, Douglas, Fulton and Paulding counties, among others; but there are several census tracts in metro counties reporting that 47, 53 or 64 percent of men ages 25-54 are not working.
In the metro area, the higher percentages appear more common in DeKalb and Fulton counties — though there are high percentages reported across the state.
The truest picture of economic health is, like most economies, multi-faceted, not singular. Indeed, Georgia employers recently reported a dearth of skilled workers, as the state's aging workforce nears retirement, and even as the jobless rate has been among the worst in the country in recent months (drawn from what Gov. Nathan Deal called "historically faulty" data).
"There are still places in the United States where nearly all men in their prime working years have a job," the Times' analysis begins, highlighting robust employment rates for men in the "energy belt," and in the suburbs of San Francisco, Dallas, Boston and elsewhere. However: "It’s vastly more common today than it was decades ago for prime-age men not to be working."
That official number nationally is 16 percent, according to the Times, a number that has "more than tripled since 1968."
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