Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee has suggested that the United States ask about criminal background when conducting its census, in order to better help these individuals reintegrate into the workforce.

"How many people are out of the labor force because of their criminal records?" Lee, the Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said Washington.

Lee's suggestion is backed by the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI). AEI economist Nicholas Eberstadt said that men with an arrest record are more likely to be unemployed. Eberstadt also wrote a book about the phenomenon of male unemployment in the economy.

Eberhardt believes the statistics could be utilized by policymakers to bring them back into the labor market.

"It is an enormous statistical blind spot, and given the realities of life in our country today, a critical and inexplicable statistical oversight," Eberstadt said.

The point is moot since it is already too late to include the question on the census.

The census has been a flashpoint of controversy, as President Trump has advocated that it ask individuals whether they are legal citizens or not. This has been opposed by most Democrats and immigration advocates.

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