Mike Rowe, known by many as host of the popular show "Dirty Jobs" and the CEO of the MikeRoweWorks Foundation, is raising concerns about a growing segment of the U.S. population: men in their prime working years who are neither employed nor looking for work.

"There are able-bodied men in their working ages not only not working, but not looking," Rowe said during an interview on "Varney & Co." "That, to me, is one of the greatest alarm bells going on in the country. We've never seen that before, not in peacetime anyway."

Rowe pointed to research from economist Nicholas Eberstadt in his book "Men Without Work," who has long warned about the troubling trend. According to Eberstadt, more than 7 million men of prime working age have dropped out of the labor force entirely.

Rowe believes this problem is being made worse by a cultural overemphasis on traditional higher education, which he says steers people away from skilled trades, even as thousands of trade jobs remain unfilled.