Although 120,000 jobs were added to nonfarm payrolls, job growth slowed in March for both men and women, according to an analysis of the April employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Institute for Women's Policy Research.
The analysis also finds that women gained 38,000 jobs in March, which accounts for roughly one-third of all jobs added, while men gained 82,000 jobs. Strong growth in the health care industry helped women's employment outlook as 26,000 jobs were added overall. The gap between women and men's employment in March is now at 1.9 million.
Unemployment rates continued on a largely steady pace from February to March as they fell for women age 16 and older to 8.1 percent from 8.2 percent and remained unchanged for men at 8.3 percent, the analysis reveals. In March, 12.7 million workers remain unemployed.
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From March 2011 to March 2012, among the 1.9 million jobs that were added, 635,000 of those were filled by women, totaling to 33 percent, while 1,264,000 at 67 percent were filled by men, the analysis finds. In October 2009 when men and women had nearly the same employment numbers, but since then, women have gained 697,000 jobs as men have gained 2,592,000, which is more than three times as many jobs as women. Since June 2009, men have gained 88 percent or 2 million jobs while women have gained only 12 percent or 284,000 jobs.
According to the analysis, women have regained 881,000 jobs at 32.4 percent of the total jobs they lost in the recession, but men have gained 2.7 million jobs at 45 percent of the jobs they lost since December 2007. Although both women and men have experienced job gains in 2011 and 2012, there is still a jobs deficit relative to before the recession. At the pace of 120,000 job gains in March, it would take until late 2020 just to employ those now searching for work without considering additional workers entering the labor force.
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