A feminine economy?

Our economy is becoming increasingly feminized. That’s one message of today’s labour market figures.
These show that, over the last 12 months, male employment has fallen by a net 447,000 whilst female employment has dropped just 43,000 net. Thanks to this, there are now almost as many female employees as male - 12.3m vs. 12.6m, though men still dominate in self-employment. This is the smallest gap on record.
One reason for this is that there’s been a massive shift from full-time jobs, which are mostly male jobs, to part-time ones, which are mostly female ones; in the last 12 months a net 641,000 full-time jobs have been destroyed, and a net 101,000 part-time ones created, 96,000 of them in the last three months.
There is, though, another reason. The industries that have suffered the most in this recession have been male-dominated ones. For example, manufacturing lost 253,000 jobs in the 12 months to June, 190,000 of them men. And business and financial services lost 259,000 jobs, 145,000 of them men.
By contrast, the sector that’s expanded is a female-dominated one. The education, health and public administration sector has put on 184,000 jobs, 131,000 of which have been women.
The question is: will this feminization of the workplace continue?
Two things suggest not. One is that, as the economy grows, full-time jobs should be created, to the benefit of men. Also, public spending cuts could well hit female employment more than male: 69.9% of the jobs in the  education, health and public administration sector are done by women.
On the other hand, though, deindustrialization is likely to continue - it has been going on for over 40 years. This would be detrimental to men, as these comprise three-quarters of the 2.16m jobs left in manufacturing.
Also, if we look at younger workers, there’s almost no gender gap in employment. Indeed, among 16-17 year-olds, there are more women than men in work. And among 18-24 year-olds, the gap is tiny: 1.65m women are in work against 1.75m men. By contrast, among 25-49 year-olds there are 1.5m more men than women in work. If this reflects an increase in women’s employability relative to men, then the gender gap in employment might continue to close, and even be reversed.
Personally, I’m not bothered either way by this prospect. But should I be?

Comments

[pablopatito]

You don't seem to have mentioned the impact of childbirth on women's employment status, which surely explains much of disparity between younger workers and those over 25?

[Mr Eugenides]

I read this on my RSS reader and clicked through, fully expecting to see the post illustrated with a large photo illustrating the principle of feminisation.

I have to say that I'm disappointed...

[twitter.com/nikshah]

A small but significant effect here comes from those who continue to work beyond retirement age. The numbers of these in employment has not fallen since the onset of recession, and in fact has risen a bit. Over the last decade or so, women have become more likely to stay in employment beyond retirement age than men, whereas previously the proportions of either gender doing so were roughly equal.

[Diversity]

Can't think of a reason for a male like you or me to worry if this really is happening. But I have been worried for the last 60 years or so because it was not happening.

[Ron Derven]

Any trend toward equality is a great one.

Ron D

[phil jones]

I wonder if it's a sign that we're tumbling into the third-world (what with the annihilation of the middle-class etc.) In most non-developed countries women do most of the work, while men sit around idling.

[pablopatito]

Sounds good Phil!

[botogol]

i don't think we should worry about the gender trends (unless we thought men were being prevented from working due to discrimination) but the part time trend might be more significant.

It's hard determine whether the growth of part time means that more work is done - people who wdon't want to work full time and who previosuly stayed at home, are now able to enter the workplace. This is good.

Or whether we are experiencing some kind of restructuring where full-time jobs are hard to get, and so less work is being done. A bad thing.

[jameshigham]

Great - thanks for those figures - I've needed something like that.

[Andrew Duffin]

I would imagine that any feminisation of the workforce that depends on an ever-increasing number of public-sector jobs is probably a self-limiting process, and one which is likely to hit the buffers sooner rather than later.

It's true, though, that there are probably other reasons for the feminisation (risk-averse cultures which favour women, the feminisation of education leading to women having better qualifications, etc etc).