As the workplace has become more hospitable to women and minorities over the past two decades, another segment of the population has suffered greater unemployment: white males.

• Between 1980 and 1999, the unemployment rate for white males roughly doubled.

• In that period, it went from 0.9 percent to 1.7 percent for white males ages 45 to 54.

• Among the 55 to 64 age group, it rose from 1 percent to 2.1 percent.

• For the older category of white males who hold at least a bachelor's degree, workforce participation has fallen from 85 percent to 78 percent in the past 19 years.

Age-discrimination laws benefit older workers who are already employed, says Yale Law School researcher John R. Lott. "But those same protections make employers wary of newly hiring older workers," he points out.

Source: Peter Brimelow, "Jobless White Males," Forbes, July 3, 2000.