Tucker Carlson mocked for using wrong graph to falsely complain women outnumber men in US workforce

Men still make up more of the US workforce than women, despite Fox News host’s claims

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was mocked after he argued that men were dropping out of the labour force because of an increase in women workers. The pundit broke out a pair of graphs to bolster his argument, but viewers quickly noted one was remarkably inaccurate.

On Thursday night, Carlson began discussing the root causes of inflation, which he blamed on Covid-19 relief funds giving Americans the option to quit their jobs and drop out of the labour force, and not on the low wages paid to retail, service industry, and non-union blue collar workers.

He then claimed Joe Biden wants to open the US's borders to allow immigrants to take everyone's jobs and vote Democrat. From there he pivoted off to gender issues, complaining that the drop-out of the labour force was caused by women working.

Carlson said labour drop out was "not a new trend," claiming that "our labour markets have been getting sicker for generations."

That's when he broke out the graphs.

In one, he showed a general decline of men participating in the labour market since 1950. The graph showed a steady decline of male participation in the labour force, with around 86 per cent of men participating in the labour force in 1950 to only about 67 per cent participating in 2020.

“This shows the labour force participation rate of American men,” Carlson said. “What do you notice, the line goes straight down.”

He then showed a graph depicting the growth of women's participation in the workforce, which showed an increase over time since 1950. According to the graph he showed, women's participation in the labour marker in 1950 was 65 per cent and rose to a peak of around 85 per cent in the 200s, ending just under that mark in 2020.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson showing an inaccurate graph showing women’s participation in the US labour market. In reality, women have never made up more than 61 per cent of the US labour force. (screengrab)

The only problem; the women's graph was still using the same y-axis as the men's graph. In reality, only about 30 per cent of women were in the workforce in 1950, and women have never accounted for more than 61 per cent of the workforce, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Naturally, the internet let Carlson know about his flub.

In reality, men's participation in the labour force is still much higher than women's.

A recently as November, men accounted for 67.8 per cent of the labour force, which is down from February 2020 – just before the pandemic hit the US – when 69.2 per cent of men were participating in the work force.

During those same time periods, the rate of women participating in the labour market was 56.2 per cent and 57.8 per cent, respectively.

Working off his faulty data, Carlson rang the alarm bells for his conservative viewers that men dropping out of the workforce was becoming a serious problem.

“Many call this progress on the assumption that anything bad and degrading for men must be good for America, but it is not progress,” he said. “It’s a problem. The average man defines himself by his job.”

He then went on to claim that men "fall apart" if they are not employed.

“Men and women are very different, extremely different. Society is built on their differences. Every society is," he said. "The thing about men is they kind of need to work. They tend to fall apart when they are unemployed.”