Off the Charts: Recovery Has Brought More Jobs for Men Than Women

From December 2009 through last month, the economy added 5.3 million jobs, according to the Labor Department’s monthly survey of households. Only 30 percent of them went to women. To some extent, that is simply a reflection of the fact that the recession hit men much harder than women, but the result has been at least a temporary reversal of the long trend of women holding an ever-increasing share of jobs.

The proportion of jobs held by women, which was around 28 percent when the household survey began in 1948, rose to a peak of 47.5 percent in January 2010, just after the economy hit bottom. During that period, there was only one substantial setback to the trend, in 1952 and 1953, when the end of the Korean War brought soldiers back to the civilian economy.

But in the first months of this recovery, that number fell as low as 46.6 percent, and it was at just 46.8 percent in January.

The household survey is separate from the establishment survey, which asks employers how many people are on their payrolls. That survey hit bottom in February 2010, and showed 5.5 million jobs had been added. But it does not collect information on gender, as the household survey does.

The accompanying charts show the changing employment patterns since the end of 2009 for men and women in various age groups, from 20 to 24 years to over 55. Because demographic shifts have been abrupt for some groups, like the baby boomers — there are a lot more people over 55 now, and fewer people aged 35 to 54 — the charts look at changes in the employment-to-population ratio.

That ratio differs from the more widely noted unemployment rate in that it compares the number of people who have jobs with the total population, not just with the total number of people who say they were working or looking for jobs during the month.

In January, 54.6 percent of women over the age of 20 had jobs. That was the lowest proportion since 1993, and 0.8 percentage points lower than the figure in December 2009. By contrast, 67.6 percent of men over 20 had jobs, a rate that is 1.3 percentage points higher than it was at the end of 2009, although still below prerecession levels.

The sharpest declines in employment for women were in the 20-to-24 and 45-to-54 age groups. The decline in the younger group may reflect the difficulties young people face in trying to start a career, but the decline in the middle-aged group is not so easily explained.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomic Advisors, said it might be a result of who has, and has not, been hiring. He pointed to the Institute for Supply Management’s survey of manufacturers, which has indicated that companies are hiring, and to the survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, which indicates that its members are not. “Women are more likely to be employed by small service-sector companies than by large manufacturers,” he said.

The largest increase in the proportion of women with jobs has come among those over 55, which is also the group that is growing the fastest. It seems likely that more men and women are delaying retirement. The proportion of women aged 55 to 59 with jobs does not appear to be increasing, but the proportion of women aged 60 to 64 with jobs has been rising.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy at nytimes.com/economix.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/business/economy/recovery-has-brought-more-jobs-for-men-than-women.html?partner=rss&emc=rss