Unemployment Rate: Men Vs. Women
One more thing from those June jobs numbers: The gap in unemployment between men and women got a little bit wider last month.
As the graph above shows, there was basically no difference in unemployment rates for men and women before the recession.
But jobs in fields where men are disproportionately represented (manufacturing, construction) have been hit harder than fields where a disproportionate number of women work (education, health care).
Even if the overall unemployment rate falls in the coming months and years, the gap between men and women may persist. As Newsweek notes this week, of the 15 jobs categories expected to grow fastest in the next decade, 13 are staffed primarily by women.
Bonus Gap: For an interesting look at how men's and women's earnings changed between 1979 and 2009, check out this post from the NYT's Economix.