Women Gain 80,000 of the 236,000 Jobs Added in February, Unemployment Drops, NWLC Analysis Shows

(Washington, D.C.)  Women gained 80,000 of the 236,000 jobs added in February, and adult women’s and men’s unemployment rates dropped to 7.0 percent for women and 7.1 percent for men, according to new analysis by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC).  These rates are as low as women and men have seen during this recession.  However, apart from this recession, adult women have not seen unemployment rates this high in nearly 30 years—for men it is over 20 years.

“While February showed some welcome gains, it will take many months of job growth at this level simply to make up for the job losses during the recession, much less to restore full employment,” said NWLC Vice President for Family Economic Security Joan Entmacher.  “And Congress just made the task harder by refusing to block arbitrary budget cuts known as sequestration, which are projected to cost the economy 750,000 jobs this year alone.”

Over 95 percent of women’s net job gains in February were concentrated in three sectors: professional and business services (32,000), private education and health (24,000), and retail (21,000).  Men’s largest job gains in February were in construction (48,000), professional and business services (41,000), and information (20,000)—these sectors accounted for 70 percent of men’s net employment gains. 

The public sector continued to lose jobs in February and, in a reversal of the trend for the recovery as a whole, men lost more public sector jobs than women did.  Since the start of the recovery in June 2009, women have lost 462,000 public sector jobs, while men have lost 280,000.
 

The unemployment rates for adult black women and adult Hispanic women rose slightly in February, while rates for adult white women, adult white men, adult black men, adult Hispanic men and single mothers declined. 

Over 12 million Americans are unemployed, nearly 4.8 million for six months or more.

“There is still a long way to go to reach full recovery,” Entmacher said.  “So it is especially troubling that policymakers are undermining progress by allowing program cuts that threaten not only the economic and job security of vulnerable families but of the entire country.  Congress can stop these senseless cuts – and replace them by closing tax loopholes and making smart investments in our future.” 

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