Mancession Has Ended, At Least for Jobless Rates

For 61 consecutive months starting in December 2006 and ending in December 2011, the monthly jobless rate for men exceeded the jobless rate for women, by as much as 2.7%.  That 2.7% gap was a post-WWII record and took place in October 2009 when the male unemployment rate peaked at a post-WWI high of 11.4% and the female rate was 8.7%.  In the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession the female jobless rate peaked at 8.9% in November 2010, but remained a full percentage point and-a-half below the 10.4% post-WWI high in 1982.  The recession's disproportionate adverse effect on male employment and unemployment rates compared to female workers gave rise to the expression "mancession" to describe that disproportionate effect.

Now, as of January, the "mancession" has officially come to end, at least for that one month, as the male and female jobless rates converged in January at 8.3%.  The last month the two rates were equal was in November 2006 when male and female unemployment rates were both 4.5%.

Update: In terms of employment levels though, the mancession continues: male employment is still 3.2 million jobs below the pre-recession peak, while female employment is only 1.7 million jobs below the November 2007 level.   Therefore, in terms of job losses, there's still a disproportionate effect on men by a ratio of almost 2-to-1.