> “We don’t call it work refusal, we call it unemployment,” he said. Maybe we should distinguish between these categories. Because there does appear to be a r

> “We don’t call it work refusal, we call it unemployment,” he said. Maybe we should distinguish between these categories. Because there does appear to be a relatively new phenomenon -- the never-employed adult. They're not unemployed like some of us are sometimes unemployed. Nor are they disabled. They don't want a job. In Canada, almost 70% of unemployed and not in training 25 - 29 year olds, say they're unemployed because they don't want a job [1]. Speculating here but I would bet lot of them are formerly school-avoidant. They've failed to form typical social attachments, or get positive rewards for the usual efforts. And so they've checked out of society. A lot of them are basically hikikomori [2], dependent on social assistance and ongoing parental support, living at home, rarely going outside. Unsurprisingly, the hikikomori phenomenon is starting to be recognized as a thing not unique to Japan. In the USA sometimes they're referred to as the disconnected youth. [3] [1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2018013-eng.htm https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2018013... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori [3] https://www.ssrc.org/programs/measure-of-america/youth-disconnection/ https://www.ssrc.org/programs/measure-of-america/youth-disco...