WCA September 2009

The San Francisco-based service reported that the 2.3 percentage-point gap in June between men’s unemploy- ment rate of 10.6% and women’s 8.3% rate was close to the widest it has been since 1948, when records began to be kept. The gap first hit two percentage points in March of this year, and 2.5 percentage points in May. “The gap between female and male unemployment has never been as large as it is now,” Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com, told MarketWatch . The explanation offered was fairly simple. Two male- dominated industries – construction and manufacturing – account for about half of the 6 million jobs lost since the official beginning of the recession, in December 2007. Given that men account for 87% of workers in manufacturing and 71% in construction, it is not surprising that the unemployment rate for men is rocketing past the rate for women. The only two private-sector industries to show a net increase in jobs from the start of the recession through May are health care and education – and women workers are highly concentrated in both. Also, government has shown a net job gain of 259,000 in that period, and 57% of government workers are women. MarketWatch ’s Andrea Coombes wrote, “That is not to say that women are escaping unscathed. And lower-income and less educated workers, no matter their sex, usually face steeper job losses than others in recessions. This one is no different.” The variations are even more striking when the unemployment rates are broken out by race and age. For example, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Labor Department, in May the unemployment rate was 9.7% for white men, 18% for black men. The rate was 7.3% for white women, 12.2% for black women. As for the prospects for employment once the recession is behind us, some MarketWatch respondents expressed optimism. “The manufacturing jobs that have been lost will largely come back,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “We’ve seen manufacturing decline as a share of the work force for decades – that won’t stop.” But Ms Shierholz expects the “recessionary losses” to be restored as people start buying durable goods again, including cars and appliances.

Little by slowly, the four-day week gains acceptance

Concessions recently agreed to by the Canadian ❖ ❖ Auto Workers – frozen wages, leave without pay, forfeit benefits and bonuses – were in line with recommendations made by US President Barack Obama in his first address to Congress. Mr Obama hailed a growing trend toward the four-day workweek, with corresponding pay cuts, as a way to save jobs. While the Canadian government has long supported work sharing as an alternative to outright layoffs, the concept is fairly new to Americans.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2009