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Women not faring worse in labour market

Reports that women are faring less well than men in the current labour market are misleading, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser to the Institute has said a rise in the number of women entering the labour market and the disproportionate impact of public sector job cuts have caused misinterpretation.

He said: “In the year to the final quarter of 2011, a period of considerable public sector downsizing, the number of men in employment fell by 43,000 (-0.3%) while the number of women in employment increased by 50,000 (+0.4%).

“The corresponding rise in unemployment was near identical for both men and women (up 89,000 and 90,000 respectively).”

Dr Philpott went on to point out that unemployment rate deteriorated slightly more for women, due to more entering the labour market, and in contrast the number of men participating in the labour market fell.

He added: “It is evident that conditions in the UK labour market are at present tough for both women and men, and there is a clear and severe overall shortage of jobs that needs to be filled.

“However, it is misleading to say that women are being hit harder than men. This is perhaps surprising given the relatively high concentration of women working in the public sector.

“Further large scale public sector downsizing may therefore have an adverse impact on female unemployment in the coming months and years.

“But the current popular narrative suggesting that female employment is already falling and unemployment rising relative to that of men because of the impact of fiscal austerity is not supported by available data.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .