There are tales, perhaps apocryphal, of villages where all the men of working age have left.
According to Hull council's own statistics 10.8%% of men of working age were claiming jobseeker's allowance in the city last summer, only 5% of women.
Across the OECD countries some 83% of men of working age are in the labour market, compared with 64% of women.
In stark contrast to this prosperity are the dozens of black men of working age who are simply "hanging out" on the streets.
Royston away is always a tough one when it comes to fielding a strong team – men of working age find the 6.30am start unmanageable.
Wisconsin now incarcerates African American men of working age at the highest rate in America – one in eight has spent time in prison.
According to a study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as of 2010 thirteen per cent of the state's African-American men of working age were behind bars — nearly double the national average, of 6.7 per cent.
Only 20 percent of Roma men of working age in Slovakia have jobs — compared with 65 percent in the general population — and they die 15 years earlier than the national average, according to a World Bank report last year.
Meanwhile, however, the literacy rate among men of working age has risen to 70%, making the labour force much more productive than in the past.These are solid foundations for faster growth.
