Equality in Job Loss: Women Are Increasingly Vulnerable to Layoffs During Recessions

摘要

If recent history is any guide, then the current downturn threatens women's employment more than ever before, making it increasingly difficult for families to make ends meet. In recessions prior to 2001, women could buffer family incomes against male unemployment because they did not experience sharp job losses. However, this changed in the 2001 recession as women lost jobs on par with men in the industries that lost the most jobs. That was the first recession in decades during which women not only lost jobs, but also did not see their employment rates recover to their pre-recession peak. It now appears that, unlike in decades past, families can no longer rely on womens employment to help boost family income during a downturn. When women lose jobs, families lose a large share of their income and experience greater economic volatility. Wives typically bring home more than a third of their familys income and single mothers are sole breadwinners. Families are more economically vulnerable as wives are no longer insulating families from economic hardship in times of higher unemployment and falling or stagnant real wages. Single-mother families are now especially vulnerable.