A couple months back, Spark News discussed how the Great Recession was alternatively being referred to as the “mancession.” When the Great Recession took hold of our economy and job market, it was noted that more men than women lost their jobs. This was mostly due to the extreme loss of manufacturing in the U.S. and the jobs that went along with it. Since it’s just a simple fact that more men work in manufacturing than women, it was only logical that they lost more jobs. However, it seems as though the tide has changed and men are experiencing a greater jobs gain than women.
According to Bloomberg, the percentage of men that said the economy was improving was 41 percent. Compared to the 26 percent of women that said the same thing, it is clear to see that there is some divide among gender in terms of recession recovery. In the post Spark News published on the “mancession,” we talked about how men experienced job loss first and how it took a bit longer for women to experience the same loss. In the same sense, it seems as though men are recovering earlier than women. In fact, “men, who lost more than twice as many jobs as women during the worst economic slump since the Great Depression, have landed 88 percent of the non-farm jobs created since the recession ended in June 2009,” reports Bloomberg.
Specifically, the percentage of employed men aged 20 years or older has grown over the past couple of years and is currently at 68 percent. The unemployment rate for men has also decreased over the years. Back in January of 2009, the male unemployment rate was at 10.6 percent. Last month, that number dropped to 8.3 percent. During those same years, the unemployment rate for women actually increased. Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Washington-based Center for American Progress, was quoted saying, “The recovery is a mancovery. I don’t see improvement for women in the past year, whereas for men this is the best year in years.”
These great statistics for men can be highly attributed to the slow recovery of the manufacturing industry. Although it is known that manufacturing is not at all where it needs to be, the improvements and gains made over the past couple years are noteworthy. In fact, manufacturing expanded for the 30th month in a row this past March and construction seems to be expanding and recovering as well. It’s easy to see the correlation between these industries and increased job gains for men as most workers in these industries are men.
Hopefully, the trend between gender and jobs gain will continue to follow suit. If it does, women can expect to see a slow rise in their own jobs gain as the recession recovery continues to pick up speed. Men were the first to lose their jobs and now they are the first to get them back. It is the hope of many women that they will start to see this trend extend to them as well.
What do you make of these statistics? Do you feel like you are in a “mancovery?”
SOURCE: Bloomberg
IMAGE: Courtesy of Sam Hodgson of Bloomberg
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