The spread of the coronavirus pandemic to the economy has meant the gender gap has become a chasm, according to a new research brief from the United States Studies Centre. The brief finds as US unemployment rates climb towards 20 per cent, the burden of the COVID-19 labour market collapse is falling disproportionately on women.
“Women in the United States were seven per cent more likely to have lost their job than men, while those without a degree were eight per cent more likely,” explains David Uren, Non-Resident Fellow at the US Studies Centre. He says, “entrenched gender roles and the need to care for children unable to attend school may partly explain the higher share of women reporting unemployment, though women are also more heavily represented in lower-paid occupations.”
The brief highlights that women in Australia, according to a survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, have suffered a bigger percentage fall in employment than men, with gender gaps of between two and four percentage points in the hospitality, recreation and arts, utilities, transport and general services sectors.
Using the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) as a point of departure, the brief compares the current crisis with the largest recession in living memory. Uren notes, “it is a completely different pattern to the GFC where, in the United States, it was middle-income earners who lost out and whose jobs never returned.”
“The COVID-19 crisis is eroding the jobs at the bottom.”
Uren warns of a long road ahead in recovering from a crisis of this magnitude, pointing to the experience of past recessions.
“While there is a political push both in the United States and Australia to ‘get back to work’, the experience of past recessions is that unemployment rises rapidly but descends very slowly,” he states.
Uren concludes, “governments have been proceeding on the basis that the COVID-19 crisis will be a short, if sharp, recession and have fashioned emergency support for those who have lost their work on that basis. But the disproportionate impact of the crisis on those in the lowest-paid positions suggests the call for government support could be long-lasting.”
Key points
- The burden of the COVID-19 recession is falling most heavily on low-paid personal and household services occupations and is most severely experienced by women.
- The coronavirus-fueled crisis is a stark divergence from the Global Financial Crisis, which saw middle-income earners hit hardest.
- US surveys show women and those without tertiary education are suffering the biggest job losses, with women in the US seven per cent more likely to have lost their job than a man, while those without a degree were eight per cent more likely.
- The experience of past recessions is that unemployment rises rapidly in a recession but takes a long time to fall.
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