Number of the Day
The Great She-Cession, by the Numbers
Women tend to fare better than men in most recessions. Not this one.
54%: That’s women’s share of overall job losses due to Covid-19, despite making up only 39% of global employment, according to McKinsey.
In the U.S., the employment rate for women fell by 17.8 percentage points, compared to a 15.8 percentage point drop for men, according to new research about how the pandemic has impacted women. And the unemployment rate was 2.9 percentage points higher for women than it was for men between February and April of this year. This is pretty unusual: Women have fared better than men in every U.S. recession since 1975 — until this year.
A lot of it comes down to childcare. Given the unique dynamics of the pandemic-induced recession, women have found themselves in jobs less suited to telecommuting (like department store cashiers, for example) and more likely to take on the burdens of childcare with schools and daycares closed. Mothers with young children reduced their work hours four to five times as much as fathers did.
More women leaving the workforce could have lasting effects on the economy. The McKinsey study estimated that this could leave the global GDP $1 trillion lower in 2030 than if women’s unemployment simply tracked that of men in every sector.
The pandemic may have blasted our economy years into the future, but for many women, it’s a blast from the past.
