Female labour force participation held up much better.
The main reason is that females work in public sector protected jobs - health, social and education sectors. Men work in the private sector - manufacturing and construction. Of course, ultimately, the public sector jobs rely on revenues gathered from the private sector.
Worth thinking about the graph above next time you hear public sector employees moaning about conditions and pay rates. At least their security has been better than others enjoy.
1 comment:
Hi Lesley
I am not sure you are right with the public/private argument.
The same pattern has been found in the USA where health care is private, and a lot of schooling is as well.
I think you may be underestimating the different level of impact that the recession had on full and part-time work (part-time work fell less in terms of numbers, though I am not sure about hours), the interaction of qualifications and youth (youth were particularly badly hit, but those with higher qualifications had less impace and young women tend to be better qualified than young men), as well as industry type (industries that have deferrable products or highly income sensitive are more impacted by a recession - that is why whiteware manufacturers tend to be more affected than old age homes. You can defer buying a new washing machine, but not washing the elderly in care! That has nothing to do with public/private.)
Margaret
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