What's going on with men's labor force participation?

It's the first Jobs Friday of the new year, and there's good news!

The unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.1%, and the economy added 256,000 jobs. So, for the last month of 2024, the jobs market finished pretty strong.

Today on the show, we look at the indicators from this month's jobs report that give us a snapshot of where our economy's headed. We look at how men are potentially reversing a decades-long trend of declining labor force participation, how people who are unemployed are staying that way for longer and how a lot of Americans saw their wages rise in 2024.

PLUS ... we reveal the winner of our Indicator of 2024!

Related episodes:
Help us pick the indicator of the year!
Getting more men into so-called pink-collar jobs

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)