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Millionis of job losses triggered by shutdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic are hitting women harder than men in ways that could have long-lasting implications for the labor market, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kasas City.
The figures have been staggering and record-setting. Still, they were a predictable result of the radical physical distancing measures needed to contain the virus after failure to heed early warnings left the country unable to do the testing and tracing needed to slow the disease.
Some 22 million Americans have applied for first-time jobless benefits in just four weeks, leading many economists to estimate the unemployment rate is already around 20% and set to climb further.
“Women, especially those without a college degree, have taken a bigger hit in the first wave of job losses,” wrote Didem Tuzemen, a senior economist at the Kansas City Fed and Thao Tran, a research associate there.
“This imbalance could lead to prolonged damage to women’s employment and labor market attachment if job losses deepen and persist in the coming months.”
Women held less than half of all U.S. jobs in February 2020, according to the Labor Department’s Establishment Survey, yet they lost 425,000 jobs in March, 60% of the total decline.
Women tend to hold jobs in industries that have been hardest hit by the crisis—35.4 out of 56.5 million, the study said. Strikingly, women work almost 80% of all jobs in the health-care and social assistance industries.
Coronavirus job losses hitting women disproportionately.
“This imbalance in job losses could lead to prolonged damage to women’s employment and labor market attachment,” the authors said. “They may experience a sharper decline and a slower recovery in employment and labor force participation if job losses deepen and persist in the coming months.”
Women are more likely to work in hard-hit industries.
