On today’s Business Beat, Jeff Sloan shares reports of the impact the pandemic had on women — they were harder hit and are taking longer to recover.
Tune in below to find out why as well as a potential silver lining:
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Good morning, Paul! With unemployment numbers now at the level at which they were just prior to the pandemic hitting, you’d think all would be good by now. However, a deeper look at the numbers reveals that certain demographics were harder hit than others and are taking longer to recover as well. In particular, women have been really hit hard from a job standpoint by the pandemic according to two new reports just released by Work Human and Gusto.
Now data collected from the Gusto study, specifically found that women still drive the majority of current resignations and that this gender gap widened in January. Now in January, 4.1% of women quit their jobs compared to 3.4% of men. What’s causing this? Well, a major factor is childcare. Childcare disruptions caused by the Omicron surge drove much of the elevated quit rates among women in January, the report shows. The Gusto report states that that was indeed childcare that was responsible primarily for how women were disproportionally impacted and forced to make the decision to leave their jobs.
While childcare became harder to secure and more than just the pace at which women are leaving their jobs, the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly jobs report shows that men have now recouped all of their labor force losses since February 2020 while over 1 million fewer women were in the labor force in January 2022, compared to February 2020 when the pandemic started. The sharp contrast between the number of men and women in the labor force reflects how dramatically uneven this recovery has been.
Is there a silver lining in all of this? Well, actually they’re just. More women have chosen to stay at home and start a business of their own during this time, rather than searching for a new employment opportunity. And there’s never been a better time to start a business. With all the tools and resources available to entrepreneurs today, starting part-time or full-time has never been easier.
I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
