Men More Likely to Lose Their Jobs Than Women

By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

An old conservative joke: A headline in New York Times reads, "New York destroyed by nuclear bomb." Subhead: "Women, Minorities Hardest Hit." But in this recession men are more likely than women to become unemployed. Why? In past inventory-glut recessions we would have said because men are more likely to work in factories which are closed down. In this financial-solvency recession, one reason is that government and health care payrolls are the only ones increasing, and women are heavily represented in those fields. Pollster Scott Rasmussen sometimes shows the response to questions by private sector and public sector workers. I think it would be interesting to know how private sector men, public sector men, private sector women and public sector women respond.

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