Men in the United States took most of the new jobs and squeezed out the employment of women

Men in the United States took away the majority of the new jobs and squeezed out the employment of women (Alberta Times) American men take more than two-thirds of new jobs in private companies during economic recovery,...

(Alberta Times)

U.S. men took more than two-thirds of new private company jobs during the economic recovery, reversing a long-term trend of female employment growth. The proportion of women employed in the United States increased during the Great Recession, once surpassing men to become the majority. The emergence of new jobs has baffled economists: One of the main drivers of the new trend is the entry of hundreds of thousands of male workers into the formerly female-dominated retail sector. Nearly 1.28 million men gained new jobs in the year ending in November, compared with 600,000 newly employed women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While men are returning to manufacturing and services in droves, not many are returning to construction, which remains stagnant. There were 216,900 new male workers in the retail industry, which is about five times the number of new people in the financial services industry, which has traditionally been dominated by men. However, retailers only recruited 9,000 female workers. Manufacturers added 250,000 new male workers but laid off 33,000 female workers. Sweet, an economist at Moody's Analytics, said, "It proves how difficult the job market is and that big men are taking jobs that people thought they wouldn't do." He also mentioned that the number of unemployed people is 4.5 times the number of job vacancies in the United States. Women's share of U.S. employment - including private companies and government agencies - reached 49.99% in October 2009, amid massive layoffs in the construction and financial services industries. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of women employed has dropped to 49.4%. Jacobs Jacobs, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said the agency does not study why new jobs are skewed toward men. But a director at the Working Families Research Group said that shift is a pendulum effect after men bore the brunt of the recession in the early days. Coontz, co-chair of the Council on Modern Families, said jobs in education and health care, traditionally female-dominated industries, are being cut. Perhaps the most important factor driving men into new fields is the impending expiration of unemployment benefits, Sweet said. He said, "They have to decide, are you going to drop out of the workforce or are you going to catch what is?"