Yesterday, senior public servant, David Gruen, unbelievably blamed the rise in male joblessness on video games. From The Australian:
Video games are luring young men away from the workforce in large-enough numbers to show up in the labour force survey…
Although the number of hours worked per person has declined since 2000, it has fallen further for men in their 20s than for anyone else, dropping 5.1 per cent…
“While young men may be enjoying ‘higher-quality’ leisure by playing video games, the rest of us might worry about what this use of their time in early adulthood might mean for their prospects for fulfilling employment later in life,” Dr Gruen said…
Video games. Really? Maybe they’re playing video games because there is no job. Since the GFC, jobs growth has been dominated by female-dominated “caring” jobs, such as in Health Care and Social Assistance and Education::
Whereas male dominated professions – such as manufacturing, wholesale trade and agriculture – have been hammered particularly hard.
