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Women Affected Most by COVID-19 Disruptions in The Labor Market - St. Louis Fed
Women Affected Most by COVID-19 Disruptions in The Labor Market - St. Louis Fed
Louis Fed
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The COVID-19-induced recession of 2020 was different from others
because it was caused primarily by efforts to slow the new virus’ spread.
Industries hit particularly hard included those requiring close contact with
other workers and members of the public.
Women saw greater unemployment because many work in high-contact
or part-time jobs. Child- and elder-care issues also may have contributed.
From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic—as copious flows of data were generated and
processed—a striking gender bias emerged: It became apparent that the novel coronavirus
was, and still is, killing men at significantly higher rates than women.
In this article, we show the negative impact of COVID-19 on working women and argue that, to
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understand this asymmetry between genders, we need to look at two disparate trends
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In any event, vast sectors of the service industry were directly affected by the economic
contraction caused by social distancing and lockdown protocols. In turn, many other sectors
were indirectly affected by lower demand and disruptions in supply. While closed restaurants,
online schools and empty airports epitomized the economy in 2020, the disruptions have been
much broader.
The latest recession has been different from previous ones because it has severely hit
industries and occupations that require close physical contact. These jobs are in sectors such
as health care, education and hospitality, which tend to have high female employment shares.
This is quite different from previous recessions that disproportionately reduced jobs in the
traditionally male-dominated construction, transportation and manufacturing sectors. At the
macro level, these differences are easy to detect. In a typical recession, the unemployment
rate for male workers increases much more than for female workers.
For instance, in the Great Recession, which fell within the May 2007 to November 2009 time
frame, the unemployment rate for men increased from 4.6% to 11%; for women, it went from
4.4% to 8.6%. In contrast, in January 2020, the unemployment rate for both genders was 3.5%;
by April 2020, it had climbed to 16.1% for women and 13.6% for men.1
In addition, even in the modern era, caring for children and the elderly falls disproportionately
on women. So, the closures of schools and all other centers that care for children and seniors
are likely to have further reduced—perhaps enormously—the labor market opportunity for
many women.
First, there is a strong trend in the upper end of skill distribution, with women entering and
even dominating high-paying occupations. Indeed, despite substantial gaps still remaining, TOPas
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a group, women have been consistently achieving significant gains in participation and
outcomes in the U.S. workforce. This positive trend has multiple dimensions, including a
much higher participation rate for women in highly skilled and high-earning occupations, as
shown in the figure below.
SOURCES: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data).
The figure shows the numbers of men and women employed full time who are older than 25
and have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Early in 2000, there was a large gap between the
numbers of full-time college-educated men and women workers, with women accounting for
only 44% of the labor market. By late 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic began, this
gap had shrunk significantly, with both genders sharing 50% of the labor market.
This is consistent with previous findings that, since 2015, white women have outnumbered
white men in professional occupations. Since professional jobs can be performed more easily
from home, one would expect the COVID-19 crisis would not affect women more severely than
men, at least from a labor market perspective. If so, all the asymmetries in the upper end of
skill distribution might be explained by an uneven division of labor inside households, in
terms of caring for children, the elderly and the sick.
On the other hand, women account for a large and persistent share of people with part-time
jobs in the U.S. labor market, especially in the lower end of skill distribution.2 The second
figure below shows the numbers of men and women working part time who were older than
25.
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SOURCES: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data).
In the first quarter of 2000, women accounted for more than 75% of the part-time labor
market. By 2019, women still accounted for almost 70% of part-time workers. Those part-time
jobs tend to be relatively insecure, and many are in service sectors that also happen to require
high amounts of physical contact among workers and with customers.
COVID-19 was probably the perfect storm for many women in these jobs, especially those with
families. The figure shows a steep fall in these types of jobs, and, at least from the current
observations, a much slower labor recovery for women than for men. Furthermore, the
unemployment rate increased substantially more for women of color than for white women.
In sum, in addition to the remarkable asymmetry between men’s and women’s job losses, the
pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities for women in the labor force, as dictated by
their skill levels and occupations.
Endnotes
1. Nonetheless, as noted in a previous article, in the Great Recession of 2007-09, long-term
unemployment for women was already on par with that of men. See “Age and Gender
Differences in Long-Term Unemployment: Before and after the Great Recession.”
2. Similar patterns are observed in other developed countries as discussed in a recent article
in The Atlantic.
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Qiuhan Sun
Qiuhan Sun is a research associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
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