Dependence On Government Jobs Leaves Women Behind In Recovery

via Jillian Berman, The Huffington Post

Women make up slightly more than half of the U.S. population, but they gained less than 4 percent of new jobs created last month, according to a recent report by the National Women’s Law Center.

Women gained 4,000 jobs in September out of a total of 103,000, a NWLC analysis of Department of Labor data found. September’s job gains for women were abysmal, but the month’s numbers are only the latest part of a larger trend: Since June 2009, the start of the recovery, women have lost 264,000 jobs, while the economy has gained a total of 841,000, according to the NWLC.

“The unemployment balance between men and women can often be explained by sectors,” said Sylvia Ann Hewitt, founding president of the Center For Work-Life Policy. “What’s been going on very recently is a tremendous cutback in state local government jobs because of the way which the deficits are biting, and those kinds of jobs are female-dominated. There’s tremendous red ink flushing around the townships and states of America right now.”

In September the public sector slashed 34,000 jobs, 28,000 of which were held by women, according to NWLC. Women have lost a total of 407,000 public sector jobs since the start of the recovery, virtually wiping out their private sector gains.

Contine Reading at The Huffington Post