Opiods tied to drop by men in labor force

Opioid use by American men accounts for a portion of the decline in their participation in the U.S. labor force, according to a study by Princeton University economist Alan Krueger.

“The opioid crisis and depressed labor-force participation are now intertwined in many parts of the U.S.,” Krueger, who was chief economist at the Treasury Department in the Obama administration, wrote in the study released Thursday at a Brookings Institution conference in Washington.

Krueger’s study linked county prescription rates to labor-force data from the past 15 years, concluding that regional differences in prescription rates were because of variations in medical practices, not health conditions. In previous research, he found that nearly half of men in their prime worker ages not in the labor force take prescription painkillers daily.

Krueger’s study echoes previous research that attributes most of the decline in labor-force participation since the early 2000s to an aging population and young people choosing school over work. The opioid crisis is exacerbating the problem, Krueger wrote.

“Addressing the decades-long slide in labor force participation by prime-age men should be a national priority,” he wrote.

Economists have begun to pay more attention to the spread of prescription painkillers and their link to the historically low portion of prime-age people working.