As the snail-like (yet doggedly persistent) recovery from the Great Crash of 2008-09 continues, one measure of economic health—the nation’s unemployment rate—had fallen from above 10% to its current level just south of 5%. But that’s an aggregate number. Certain demographic groups have done better than others, and some have seen their situation deteriorate substantially.
Just look at men in their twenties without a college degree, for example. In 1990, 4% of that demographic had not worked in the previous twelve month period. In 2015, that number ballooned to 20%.
So if these young men are not working, exactly what are they doing? Economists from Princeton, the University of Rochester, and the University of Chicago have studied that very question and concluded that many are living in their parents’ basements, playing video games.