Women suffering steeper job losses in COVID-19 economy
By Niv Elis - 05/25/20 08:45 PM EDT
The economic devastation caused by the coronavirus has hit women particularly hard, a contrast to the 2009 downturn that was known as "the men's recession."
The latest employment figures show that women, by a 10-point margin, have seen the majority of the job losses as large parts of the economy have shut down.
The difference could have implications for the recovery and what policymakers need to do to ensure it’s not drawn out.
One primary reason that women are seeing higher unemployment rates is that the pandemic and the lockdowns have hit sectors of the economy that disproportionately employ women hardest.
“This is a really atypical recession, in that we’ve proactively shut own major sectors of thee economy and there’s a dropoff in demand that we’ve never seen before, both caused by the global health crisis,†said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/499250-women-suffering-steeper-job-losses-in-covid-19-economy