Long-Term Shift In U.S. Economy Causes More Men Than Women To Lose Jobs In Current Recession

December 5, 2008 8:50 a.m. EST

Boston, MA (AHN) - The nature of the recession and the long-term shift in the American economy has caused more men to lose than jobs than women. According to the Labor Department, 1.1 million males lost their jobs the past 12 months while 12,000 women found employment during the same period.

Males comprise 70 percent of the employees in the manufacturing sector which lost 500,000 jobs the past year. The construction industry which has a 90 percent male pool, shed 500,000 jobs while investment companies which is 60 percent male-dominated, lost 9,000 jobs. In contrast, the healthcare sector, in which females comprise 80 percent of its work force, added over 400,000 jobs during the same time.

Andrew Bright, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at the Northwestern University forecast the gap is expected to close as the recession broadens.

The current situation is different compared to the last recession which mainly hit the professional and technical sectors in which females now account for over 40 percent of the workforce. At that time 900,000 males and 700,000 females lost their jobs.

The gender gap is expected to worsen when the federal government releases unemployment data for November on Friday as several large companies recently announced more lay-offs. The firms which will cut their payroll include AT & T which will remove 15,000 jobs, Dupont 2,500, Viacom 850 and JPMorgan Chase 9,200.

David Autor, economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said laid off male workers who are highly educated are likely to find jobs again because of the value placed by the American economy on technical skills, analytical abilities and graduate degrees.

"These guys will bounce back," Autor was quoted by the Boston Globe. However, he added, "But the job opportunities for less-educated males have declined substantially over the past 30 years and there is a lack of alternatives for them."