Men Bearing The Brunt of Lost Jobs

The US recession has opened up the biggest gap between male and female unemployment rates since records began in 1948, as men bear the brunt of the economy’s contraction.

This is a dramatic reversal of the trend over the past few years, where the rates of male and female unemployment barely differed, at about 5 per cent. It also means that women could soon overtake men as the majority of the US labour force.

Men have lost almost 80 per cent of the 5.1m jobs that have gone in the US since the recession started, pushing the male unemployment rate to 8.8 per cent. The female jobless rate has hit 7 per cent.

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Men have been disproportionately hurt because they dominate those industries that have been crushed: nine in every 10 construction workers are male, as are seven in every 10 manufacturing workers. These two sectors alone have lost almost 2.5m jobs. Women, in contrast, tend to hold more cyclically stable jobs and make up 75 per cent of the most insulated sectors of all: education and healthcare.

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The widening gap between male and female joblessness means many US families are solely reliant on the income the woman brings in. Since women earn on average 20 per cent less than men, that is putting extra strain on many households.

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Hat Tip – DM

Unemployment – 13 Million Jobless

Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation’s jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder — a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.

The current rate would be even higher — 15.6 percent — if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work because they can’t do any better. That’s the highest on record for that number in figures that go back to 1994.
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Bloody Monday: U.S. Cut 50,000 Jobs In One Day

From drugs to computer chips, top companies announced Monday that they are laying off nearly 50,000 employees as a reeling economy took a heavy toll on the already strained job market.

Monday’s efforts to downsize companies included layoffs and buyouts across the economic spectrum, and top economists predict that the job picture will worsen as the year goes on. The departures also come as negotiations continue in Washington, D.C., on the size and shape of an economic stimulus package — a priority for President Barack Obama, in office for barely a week.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, announced that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 32 percent, a symptom of the worldwide economic slowdown. Because of the drop, the company will eliminate 20,000 jobs, about 18 percent of its work force, through layoffs and buyouts, Caterpillar announced.

Drugmaker Pfizer, which announced it will acquire rival Wyeth for $68 billion, said it will cut about 8,000 jobs from its current work force. Once the companies are merged, another 15 percent of the work force, nearly 19,000 jobs, could be eliminated, Pfizer spokesman Ray Kerins said in a telephone interview.

Home Depot, the nation’s largest home-improvement retailer, announced it will cut about 2 percent of its work force, or 7,000 jobs. It said it will eliminate about four dozen stores, including all of its specialty Expo Design Center stores.

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