Male Recession? The Gender Jobs Gap
As the top chart above shows, since late 2006 male employment in the U.S. has been stagnant, while female employment has continued to grow. From April of last year through April 2008, men have lost 131,000 jobs while women have gained 781,000 jobs (see bottom chart). What's going on?
According to this BusinessWeek article, Men have the misfortune of being concentrated in the two sectors that are doing the worst: manufacturing (70% male) and construction (88% male). Women are concentrated in sectors that are still growing, such as education and health care (77% female).
The troubles for the American male worker, while exacerbated by the current slump, are hardly new. The manufacturing sector is in long-term decline, and construction goes through repeated booms and busts. Meanwhile women are graduating from college at higher rates than men. Some analysts even argue that men are less suited than women to the knowledge economy, which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate. "Men have tended to do better in the hierarchies, following orders and relying on positional power," says Andy Hines, a futurist at the Washington (D.C.) consulting firm Social Technologies, who previously worked for Kellogg and Dow Chemical.
Economists are debating whether the overall economy is in a recession. For men, the evidence is clear.
MP: Further, in 12 out of the last 16 months, the female unemployment rate has been below the male unemployment rate, and in each of the last 16 months, the female unemployment has been at OR below the male rate (see chart below).
7 Comments:
OK, the top chart is really bad. Yes, employment has dropped for men whereas it hasn't for women, and I understand the desire to avoid overlaying the lines. But drawing the graph so that male employment looks consistently lower instead of higher is misleading. Is this really a appropriate graph to have different scales on?
The overall point you're making is reasonable, though.
Mark-
Thank you so much for your thoughtful blog. I recently read of you in the Gartman letter and have become very interested in your posts.
I am curious, is there any information regarding the ages of men who are losing jobs? Is this data only broken out by gender?
In such a wealthy country, a strong back matters less and less. Our service economy rewards communication skills over braun.
I also blame unions, that by inflating wages for certain jobs (like manufacturing jobs) through their government enforced labor monopoly, create more incentive for young men to enter dead end jobs than the market would signal, rather than getting training in jobs the market actually wants and needs.
"Some analysts even argue that men are less suited than women to the knowledge economy, which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate."
Is this a racist statement or not?
I think women are rewarded with higher employnment for well-known reasons.
Where I live (EU country) 90% of all bank employees and 80% of public sector workers are women.
Lately I see a growing number of poliwomen. When I asked whether they can be efefctive dealing with criminals I was told that;
"Women can be tougher, stronger, faster and swifter than men".
This combined with: "female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate"
really makes men not needed.
I think the real reason for women growing employnement is the tendency of women to be more obedient to the lines of upper management.
"
> "Men have tended to do better in the hierarchies, following orders and relying on positional power,"
Yes, ignore the fact that, as women gain power, victim status is conferred on any woman for any slight, real or imagined, in companies around the nation.
Most current "sexual harassment" policies are openly male-hostile, requiring nothing but a claim, with no investigation, no corroboration (regardless of the ready availability of such), to taint the career of any man out there.
It's rather interesting they use health care and education as proof women are more suited to the "knowledge economy", while ignoring the knowledge economy itself (software and hardware design, IT, and related fields), where men completely dominate despite their alleged deficiencies in "sensitivity, intuition, and willingness to collaborate". My bet is that this sexist screed doesn't account for environment. That is, the supposed "feminine edge" is suitable only for essentially socialist endeavors, not the bleeding edge free market that still obtains in the computer industry.
service jobs tend to have lower pay.
maybe its just that women are willing to work for lower wages.
in this globalized economy, being willing to work for less pay is the key to staying employed.
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