Women and Jobs in Recoveries

(75.9 percent)

(57.3 percent)

Chart 2. Gender shifts in employment of industry sectors over 25 years

Goods-producing sector

Women Women
(24.1 percent) (27.8 percent)
Men
(72.2 percent)
Service-producing sector
‘Women Women
(42.7 percent) (53.8 percent)

January 1969

(46.2 percent)

Men

January 1994

unusually in some way in this latest recovery.
The abnormal changes in these divisions and oth-
ers are described in the next section.)

The loss of jobs in mining during the latest
recovery was not unique. A large number of min-
ing jobs also was lost during the preceding re-
covery. In the two latest recoveries (1982-83 and
1992-93), the job cuts in mining were primarily
in oil and gas extraction. Eighty-six percent of
mining workers are men, and men accounted for
most of the mining jobs that were gone by the
ends of the latest two recoveries of nonfarm jobs.

The increase in construction from February
1992 to May 1993 was middling compared with
other recoveries, As in the past, the new con-
struction jobs went to men as the number of
women in construction was almost unchanged.

Unusual developments

Several trends in the latest recovery were dra-
matic departures from preceding business cycles.
Possibly the most striking contrast was the loss
of 60,000 manufacturing jobs during the recov-
ery. In previous recoveries, manufacturing gained
hundreds of thousands of jobs, although the even
larger losses during the declines were not fully
regained, The main factors resulting in the re-

32 Monthly Labor Review July 1994

cent failure of manufacturing jobs to show any
net gain while the economy expanded include
increasing automation, foreign competition, de-
fense cutbacks, and reduced demand for com-
mercial, as well as military, aircraft. The losses
were concentrated in the durable goods indus-
tries, especially instruments and aircraft and
parts; instruments lost 40,000 jobs, and aircraft
and parts lost 70,000 jobs. Primary metals and
electronic and other electrical equipment each lost
about 20,000 jobs. Partly compensating for the
losses were gains elsewhere in manufacturing, par-
ticularly in lumber and wood products and rubber
and plastics products. Women as well as men in
manufacturing lost jobs this time, but had gained
hundreds of thousands of jobs in each of the three
preceding recoveries.

Services gained 1.3 million jobs in the 1992~
93 recovery, far more than the number added in
previous recovery periods. The gains in the lat-
est recovery were concentrated in health services,
business services (especially help supply—the
furnishing of mainly temporary workers to cli-
ent firms), and social services. Each of these in-
dustries grew at a faster rate than did services as
a whole and gained far more jobs in the latest
recovery than in the preceding one (1982-83).


stations, food stores, health services, help sup-
ply, and social services. Half of men’s gains were
in services, and almost 20 percent were in retail
trade. This distribution contrasts greatly with the
first 11 months of earlier expansions, during
which manufacturing was much stronger and
services was less strong than in the recent period.

Whether the greater recent gains of men will
persist is unknown. The current period of expan-
sion in employment, after re-attainment of the
prerecession level, is very young compared with
past completed expansions, which ran for an
average of 43 months. In one of the previous 11-
month periods at the beginning of an expansion,
men gained more jobs than women did (Septem-
ber 1971 to August 1972, 1.3 million jobs ver-
sus 1.1 million). By the end of the 1971-74 ex-
pansion, however, women caught up with and
overtook men in job gains.

Net effects

The combined effects of employment changes
in economic declines and subsequent recoveries
have included vast shifts in the industry and gen-
der makeup of U.S. employment. In general, in-
dustries that declined most have not recovered
fully by the time total nonfarm employment has
returned to its prerecession level—and one divi-
sion (services) has grown substantially during
both general declines and general recoveries. In
the latest recovery, construction regained only
100,000 jobs after losing 700,000 during the gen-
eral employment decline. Manufacturing lost a
million jobs in the general decline and lost more
jobs as total employment recovered. Services

gained more than half a million jobs during the
decline and an additional 1-1/3 million in the re-
covery. Government also had a large net gain.
The changes in jobs by industry and gender in
the recovery were greatly different from simple re-
turns to prerecession levels. At the point when jobs
recovered to the prerecession level, male employ-
ment was down by a million, and female employ-
ment was up by a million. Male employment stayed
below its level at the prerecession peak for over 3-
1/2 years, through February 1994,

Table 4 shows the net effects of these shifts
during the latest cycle. The movements are in-
fluenced by both cyclical and long-term factors.
Manufacturing has been in long-term decline
since 1979 and has lost a total of 3 million jobs.
Services, government, and retail trade have been
experiencing long-term growth. Long-term in-
fluences have substantially contributed to the
shift toward service-producing jobs, particularly
those that traditionally are held largely by women,
and consequently toward more women as em-
ployees. These influences include greater auto-
mation, which reduces the need for production
workers in goods-producing industry, and greater
longevity, which increases the elderly popula-
tion, substantially boosting demand for medical
and social services. Public demand for quality
education is another long-term factor.

Long-term influences can be stronger than
cyclical ones. Services jobs increased during the
latest general decline; manufacturing jobs con-
tinued to decline in the recovery. The transition
in the long term from a primarily goods-produc-
ing economy to a largely service-producing one
has resulted in greater demand for occupations

and recovery, 1990-93
{Numbers in thousands, seasonally adjusted}

Table 4. Changes in employment by sex and Industry in the latest employment decline

‘Change in employment
vial Women Men
Division June 1990- | February [Net change, | June 1990- | February | Net change,
February 1992— June 1990— February 1992- June 1990—
1992" April 19937 May 1993 1992" April 1993? May 1993
Total nonfarm +124 +1,086 +1,210 —1,968 +943 1,025,
Mining ..... 1 +46 7 65 -29 94
Construction . 42 4 38 639 +106 533
Manufacturing 327 Sal —368 -710 -23 -733
‘Transportation,
communication, and
utilities 29 +22 7 64 +43 -11
Wholesale trade - 42 36 -78 -106 52 -168
Retail trade ............ 158 +102 -56 208 +277 +69
Finance, insurance, and
real estate . 60 +53 +3 86 +53 -33
Services . . +640 +781 41,421 +60 +535. +595
Government . . +133 +207 +340 -160 +33 -127

* Period of deciine in nonfarm payroll employment.
2 Period of recovery in nonfarm payroll employment.

Monthly Labor Review July 1994 35



The main explanation for women’s greater job
gains in the last four recoveries, like the expla-
nation for their smaller job losses in recessions,
has to do with the widely varying proportions of
male or female employees in the various indus-
tries and the extent of job growth or loss in those
industries. The following tabulation shows the
number of jobs lost or gained in the goods-pro-
ducing and service-producing sectors in the last
five recoveries:

Change in employment

(in thousands)—
Goods- — Service-
Period producing producing
November 1970-
September 1971 ...... +282 +949
April 1975—
February 1976 ....... +830 +1,478
July 1980-
January 1981 +552 47715
November 1982-
November 1983 ...... +997 42,081
February 1992-
April 1993 .......... +11 +2,018

Clearly, the service-producing sector gained far
more jobs in each case. It also employs a much
greater proportion of women. In January 1994,
women held 54 percent of the jobs in service-
producing industries and 28 percent of the jobs
in goods-producing industries. In January 1969,
women held 43 percent of service-producing jobs
and 24 percent of goods-producing jobs. (See
chart 2.) Although the percentages changed con-
siderably over time, women consistently had (and
have) a much larger share of service-producing
jobs than of goods-producing jobs. Women
gained more jobs in recoveries primarily because
the industries that added the greatest numbers of
employees use larger percentages of women
workers. Health services, social services, and
public school systems are some of the most im-
portant industries which added many jobs in the
latest recovery and employ more women than men.

In the latest cycle, these industries experienced
relatively little or no recessionary decline and
then, as other industries recovered, continued to
grow at about the same rate or, in the case of
health services, at about two-thirds of the previ-
ous rate. In the last five cycles, employment in
the entire service-producing sector declined so
little that it reached full recovery within 3 months
after the trough of total employment, or even
before it. In the last three cycles, the goods-pro-
ducing sector never again reached the prerecession
peak in employment because of the long-term and.
substantial decline in manufacturing employment.

The ratio of women workers to all employees
within each major industry division changed

during the latest recovery, but only slightly.
Changes in the gender distribution of jobs at the
total level are mainly attributable to the shifts in
the sizes of the various industries. In fact, the
net effect of all intradivision changes in the pro-
portions of women workers is actually in a down-
ward direction—the effects of interindustry shifts
in the numbers of jobs had to overcome internal
changes in each division to yield a net upward
effect on the proportion of women employees.
Changes in employment by sex and industry in
the latest employment recovery are shown in
table 3. The major developments include some
that are characteristic of the last five recoveries
and some that are considerably different.

The trends characteristic of post-1964 employ-
ment recoveries are extensive. The retail trade,
services, and government divisions added hun-
dreds of thousands of jobs and hired vast num-
bers of women in this latest recovery, as in past
ones. Services and government hired far more
women than men. These two divisions were pri-
marily responsible for the greater overall gains
of women in the recovery. (However, services,
government, and retail trade each performed

Table 2. Job gain or loss by sex in declines and recoverles of
employment, 1970-93
[Numbers in thousands, seasonally adjusted)

Change in numbers of—

Description
Period Em
of period §~— | Employed men| imployed

March 1970-November 1970 ...... Decline 968 83
November 1970-September 1971.. | Recovery +733 +498
October 1974—April 1975... Decline 1,642 629
April 1975-February 1976 . Recovery +1138 +1,170
March 1980-July 1980 Decline “1,151 168
July 1980-January 198: Recovery 4543 +784
July 1981-November 1982 . | Dectine 2,626 135
November 1962-November 1983 .. | Recovery +1478 #1602
June 1990-February 1992 ........ | Decline 1,968 +124
February 1992-April 1993......... | Recovery 4943 +1,086

ee |

Table 3. Changes In employment by sex and industry in the latest
recovery of employment, 1992-93

[Numbers in thousands, seasonaily adjusted]

Change in employment
Division February 1992-April 1983"

Total_| Women | Men

Total nonfarm ..........-... +2,029 | +1,086 | +943
Mining -35 «| -29
Construction . +110 +4 | +106
Manufacturing 64 41] -23
Transportation, communication, and ut +65 422 | +43
Wholesale trade tee costes | 88 ~36 | -52
Retail trade .. bee : ce | 4879 +102 | +277
Finance, insurance, and real estate . =| +106 +53 | 453
Sewices.........000e cece +1,316 +781 | +535
Government . +240 | +207 | +33

* Period of recovery in nonfarm payroll employment.

Monthly Labor Review July 1994 31



Their growth over the two latest recoveries in
total employment is summarized in the follow-
ing tabulation:

Growth in jobs (in thousands)

Industry November 1982— February 1992-
November 1983 April 1993

Business

services...... +368 +509
Health

services...... +147 +315
Social

services . . +43 +137

Almost 800,000 of the new services jobs went
to women. In preceding recoveries, women
gained at most about 65 percent of that number.

Until the latest episode, changes in employ-
ment in retail trade during recoveries were gen-
erally in proportion to the gender makeup of the
industry. But in the most recent recovery, women
got only about a quarter of the jobs added in re-
tailing, although they held about half of the jobs
in the division. (The overall increase in retailing
jobs was also relatively weak—about 100,000
jobs short of the average gain in preceding re-
coveries.) This time, the more specific retailing
industries in which women are most concen-
trated, including general merchandise stores and
apparel and accessory stores, had substantially
smaller employment increases than in the previ-
ous recovery. Precarious financial positions and
major layoffs have characterized the department
store field in the last few years. Competition from
discount stores, warehouse clubs, and more spe-
cialized stores has been a large part of the prob-
lem.’ In addition, this time women gained only
34 percent of the quarter-million jobs added to
the eating and drinking places industry. In the
preceding recovery, women got half of the jobs
added to that industry.

Government employment rose by almost a
quarter of a million during the recovery, and this
increase was far greater than those of the three
previous recoveries, as shown below:

‘Change (in thousands)
All
Period employees Women
November 1970—

September 1971 .. +242,000 +95,000
April 1975-

February 1976 ........ +186,000 — +2,000
July 1980-January 1981 .. 52,000 +53,000
November 1982-

November 1983 .. +31,000 +131,000
February 1992—

April 1993 ........... +240,000 +207,000

Although women hold about half of government
jobs, most of the new public-sector jobs were
filled by women in the latest recovery. A partial
explanation for women’s gains has to do with
the more specific parts of the government sector
that gained or lost employment. While total gov-
emment jobs increased greatly, the Postal Ser-
vice and civilian employment in the Department
of Defense were cut, by 20,000 and 50,000 jobs
respectively. (Uniformed military personnel are
excluded from the survey.) About two-thirds of
the civilian jobs in each of these two organiza-
tions were held by men. The gains in govern-
ment were at the State and local levels, espe-
cially in local public school systems, in which
women constitute about 70 percent of employ-
ees. Local public education gained approxi-
mately 155,000 jobs, and most of them were
filled by women.

The unusual changes in employment of
women in manufacturing, retail trade, services,
and government are illustrated in chart 3. Com-
bined, these movements that break with the past
resulted in even larger proportions of women
getting the net new jobs than in most past recov-
eries. While two of the industries shown hired
reduced numbers of women, government and es-
pecially services hired so many more women than
in past recoveries that the overall percentage of
jobs filled by women increased from all of the
earlier recoveries except that of 1980 to 1981.

Women’s demographics, occupations

During the most recent recovery, employment
gains among women were concentrated among
those 35 to 64 years of age, while women aged
25 to 34 showed a decline. The changes were
fairly proportionate to shifts in the population of
women by age, so that the ratio of working
women to all women in each age group was fairly
stable. The following tabulation shows changes
in women’s employment by age:

Percent Change in

change in employment-

Job gain employ- population

Age group or loss ment ratio

16-19 ... 2,000 ti) -1
20-24 . . +32,000 +1 (0)
25-34 . . 354,000 -3 0
35-44. . +292,000 +2 i)
45-54 . . +634,000 +7 +1
55-64... . +144,000 +3 +1
65 and older... -37,000 3 -1

During the recovery, the ratio of employed per-
sons to population also was fairly stable among
white women and black women, indicating that
job growth in the two groups was about propor-

Monthly Labor Review July 1994 33



Women and Jobs in Recoveries

generally held by women and less demand for la-
bor in industries staffed primarily with men. As a
result, women’s employment growth has exceeded

Footnotes

men’s, and every cycle since 1974 has included a
considerable period of reduced male employment
following the recovery of totalemployment. {1

1 The Current Employment Statistics (ces) program pro-
duces estimates of employees on all nonfarm payrolls, based
‘on amonthly survey of about 390,000 workplaces. Data from
the program appear in the Bureau's monthly periodical
Employment and Earnings.

All ces data in this article are seasonally adjusted.

> The official starting and ending points of business cycles
are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Re-
search, a private, nonprofit organization which tracks de-
velopments in a number of economic indicators.

* The Current Population Survey produces estimates of
all civilian employment and unemployment based on a
monthly survey of 60,000 households. This sample includes
0.1 percent of persons in the United States. Results of the
survey, like estimates from the Current Employment Sur-
vey, appear in the monthly periodical Employment and Earn-
ings. Information on survey techniques and the magnitudes
of errors for each survey can be found in the explanatory
notes of any monthly issue of Employment and Earnings.
See, for example, pp. 228-63 of the March 1994 edition.

‘To keep analysis of the two surveys comparable, the
timespans used are based on peaks and troughs as indicated
by the survey of establishments.

5 The survey of households was recently found to under-
estimate the employment of women, and its interviewing

36 Monthly Labor Review July 1994

techniques were changed (as of January 1994), for that rea-
son among others. Also, beginning with estimates for Janu-
ary 1994, new external methods of determining the popula-
tion figures used to determine numbers of persons by age,
race, and sex were introduced. The revision of data for ear-
lier months was not possible. In January 1994, when the
new techniques were introduced, the number of employed
women was estimated at a level 1.6 million higher than the
December estimate (based on the older techniques), while
the January figure for employed men was estimated at a level
only 0.4 million higher than the December estimated level.
Because of the changes in methodology, comparisons using
household data cannot be made over spans starting before
January 1994 and ending in or after January 1994, For more
information on the changes to the survey of households, see
Sharon R. Cohany, Anne E. Polivka, and Jennifer M.
Rothgeb, “Revisions in the Current Population Survey Ef-
fective January 1994,” Employment and Earnings, Febru-
ary 1994, pp. 13-39.

6 For a fuller report on employment by sex in declines,
see William Goodman, Stephen Antezak, and Laura Free-
man, “Women and jobs in recessions: 1969-92," Monthly
Labor Review, July 1993, pp. 26-35.

7 U.S. Industrial Outlook 1994 (U.S. Department of Com-
merce, 1994), pp. 39-3,4.



William Goodman

William Goodman is
an economist in the Office
of Employment and

Unemployment Statisti
Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Women and jobs

in recoveries: 1970-93

During business cycles, the distribution
of jobs by sex and industry undergoes
large shifts; these changes have a permanent

effect on job distribution by sex

ecause men accounted for the vast ma-
B jority of jobs that were cut in connection

with the 1990-91 recession, one might
expect that, as employment returned to the
prerecession level, men would regain most of the
lost jobs. Instead, women filled the majority of
the jobs added in the latest recovery of employ-
ment (February 1992 to April 1993), and men
still filled substantially fewer jobs than they had
before the recession began. According to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of businesses,!
this pattern occurred in each of the four most
recent business cycles (from 1975 to 1993). Men
lost a net 72 to 100 percent of the jobs cut in the
last four cyclical declines, and women filled 51
to 59 percent of the jobs added as employment
returned to prerecession peak levels—although
the employment of men did eventually recover
and reach new highs as employment of women
continued to increase at a faster rate.

The lag in the rebound of men’s employment
was longer after the most recent recession than
after any of the three previous downturns. It was
not until March 1994 that men regained the num-
ber of jobs they had held at the prerecession peak
of employment 3-3/4 years earlier. Meanwhile,
the number of employed women increased by
2.2 million. (See chart 1.) This article explains
why women gained most of the net new jobs in
recent business cycles, and emphasizes the lat-
est period of recovery in employment.

While employment always falls during reces-
sions, the exact months in which it begins to de-
cline and starts growing again often differ from
the official peaks and troughs of the business
cycle.? The turning points of the nonfarm pay-

28 Monthly Labor Review July 1994

roll employment series are used here to analyze
gender shifts associated with recessions and re-
coveries. The period from the peak of employ-
ment preceding a falloff in jobs to the trough of
employment is here termed a decline, and the
period from the trough of employment to the
point at which the number of jobs reaches the
level of the preceding peak is called a recovery.
The subsequent period preceding the next decline
is defined here as an expansion; the combined
decline, recovery, and expansion is called a cycle
of employment. The employment recovery pe-
riod reveals particularly well the recurring cy-
clical contrast of substantial job gains for women
during a long interval of substantially reduced
employment of men.

The latest recovery

In the latest decline in total employment, from
the prerecession peak of June 1990 to the trough
in February 1992, men lost 2.0 million jobs as
women gained 125,000 net jobs. In the subse-
quent employment recovery, men gained 940,000
jobs and women acquired 1.1 million from the
trough to April 1993, when employment first
surpassed its 1990 peak level. The net result:
although the total number of jobs was about the
same in April 1993 as in June 1990, 1.2 million
more women and 1.0 million fewer men had jobs.

Data from an alternate source, the Federal sur-
vey of households, confirms that women gained
net jobs between June 1990 and April 1993 while
men lost net jobs. (For purposes of a check on
the business survey, the nonagricultural wage and
salary worker estimate was selected from the



Women and Jobs in Recoveries

1970-93

Chart 3. Growth in employment of women during employment recoveries, selected industries,

Manufacturing -

Retail trade |-

Services [

Government |-

213

n

Average change in prior employment
recoveries (1969-83)

Change in latest employment recovery
(February 1992-April 1993)

Uo) 200 400

Women employees (in thousands)

600 800

tionate to growth in population. This ratio re-
mained at 54 percent for white women and 50
percent for black women. The increase in em-
ployed white women was about 300,000, while
that for employed black women was about
100,000. Employment growth among. black
women was boosted because the black population
is growing much faster than the white population.

‘Women’s gains were greatest in the executive,
administrative, and managerial, professional spe-
cialty; and service occupations. The gain in the
executive, administrative, and managerial group
was about 450,000. The professional specialty
occupation including the largest number of
women is “teacher, excluding college and uni-
versity teacher”; this category accounted for
nearly all of the job growth among women in
professional specialties.

Periods of expansion

During further growth of employment following
re-attainment of the prerecession peak in jobs,
women have generally continued to gain more
jobs than men have. The same long-term factors
that increase women’s proportionate share of jobs
during recovery periods are responsible for the

34 Monthly Labor Review July 1994

faster growth of employed women during peri-
ods of expansion in jobs. The tabulation below
compares job growth for men and women dur-
ing past periods of expansion (based on the sur-
vey of businesses):

Change in numbers of
Employed Employed

Period men women
September 1971-
October 1974 ....... +3,169,000  +3,873,000
February 1976~
March 1980 ........ +5,262,000  +7,127,000
January 1981—
July 1981. +78,000 — +329,000
November 1983—
June 1990.......26. 46,717,000 +11,467,000

The relatively short 11-month period from
April 1993, when employment recovered to the
June 1990 peak level, to March 1994 has not fol-
lowed the pattern shown above. Men gained 1.2
million jobs, and women gained 1.0 million. Dur-
ing this period, gains among men were concen-
trated in the services, retail trade, and construc-
tion industries—and, more specifically, in eat-
ing and drinking places, auto dealers and service



many statistical time series of the household sur-
vey. That particular series closely approximates
the coverage of the business survey, which also
excludes agriculture and self-employed persons.)
According to household data, from June 1990 to
February 1992—the period of decline in employ-
ment—men with nonagricultural jobs decreased
by 1.1 million, while women with nonfarm jobs
increased by 100,000. From the trough to April
1993, when employment had fully recovered,
household data show that the number of em-
ployed men excluding farmworkers increased by
700,000, and that of their female counterparts
grew by 730,000. For the two periods combined,
then, employed men lost 430,000 jobs and em-
ployed women gained 840,000.4

The figures above exclude the self-employed
and farmworkers. When these groups are in-
cluded, household data show that the trends are
little affected except for an increase of 350,000
in self-employed men during the recovery pe-
riod. If the self-employed and agricultural work-
ers are included, the number of employed men
increased more during the recovery period than
did the number of employed women: the gain
among men becomes 1.1 million, and that for
women becomes 570,000. But the extent of self-

employment and the income derived from it, es-
pecially when a one-person business is just be-
ing started, may not be substantial. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that some men try self-em-
ployment because they cannot find jobs.

During the decline and recovery combined,
women stil! fared vastly better than men in net
employment gain or loss, including self-employ-
ment and agricultural work. Employed and self-
employed men show a decrease of 160,000 during
the entire period, versus an increase of 500,000 for
women.

Trends in unemployment also reflect the re-
duction in male employment. From the peak to
the point of recovery, the number of unemployed
men increased by 1.5 million while that of un-
employed women increased by 1.0 million.>

Job trends in recessions

Before discussing the recovery of employment
in the 1990’s and its effects on jobs by sex, it
will be helpful to review developments during
the preceding decline in employment (from June
1990 to February 1992).° The effects of the lat-
est recession on male and female employment
by industry was fairly representative of the ef-
fects of the four preceding recessions.

Proportion of
June 1990 level

Chart 1. Employment of men and women in the latest recession and recovery, 1990-93

Proportion of
June 1990 level

1.04

1.02

Jobs held by women

1.04

1.02

1.00

0.98

0.96

4.00 F
0.98
Jobs held by men H
r @ Employment
i recovers

0.96 4

Lie peed

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

Monthly Labor Review July 1994 29



Women and Jobs in Recoveries

Table 1. Peak-to-trough changes in employment by sex and
industry, June 1990-February 1992
{Numbers in thousands, seasonally adjusted}
pivial Changes in employment
‘vision Both sexes | Women Men
Total nonfarm ... 1,844 +124 1,968
Goods-producing sector. . 1,784 -370 1,414
Mining ......... 66 4 65
Construction 681 42 639
Manufacturing. ~1,037 -327 ~710
Service-producing sector ~60 +494 554
‘Transportation, communi
and utilities ... -83 ~29 ~54
Wholesale trade 148 42 ~106
Retail trade ........ ~366 ~158 ~208
Finance, insurance, and real estate -136 50 86
Services....... : +700 +640 +60
Government -27 +133 ~160

Table 1 shows changes in nonfarm payroll
employment by sex and industry from the peak
in employment just before the recession to the
trough or low point. As indicated, the goods-pro-
ducing sector—especially manufacturing and
construction—posted the heaviest losses by far.
These losses were suffered primarily by men,
because the mining, construction, and manufac-
turing industries employ far more men than
women. Construction employment is about 90
percent male, and men hold about 2 out of 3
manufacturing jobs. During the general decline
in employment, men accounted for 94 percent
of the net jobs lost in the construction industry
and 68 percent of the lost manufacturing jobs.
Job losses in the much smaller mining industry
also were incurred almost exclusively by men.

Retail trade posted the third heaviest losses,
and many of the jobs terminated had been held
by women. In this division, too, the losses were
roughly in proportion to the gender composition
of employment. About half of retailing employ-
ees are women.

The services division is a subset of the ser-
vice-producing sector and includes industries
such as health care, business services, and social
services, among others. Employment in services
continued to grow during the recession, with al-
most all of the increase occurring in the health
and social services industries. Demand for such
services as medical care and residential care of
the elderly, driven in part by the aging of the
population, continues to grow during recessions
partially because these services are frequently
of much higher priority to individuals than are
various other purchases. In addition, the vast
government funding of health services through
medicare and medicaid has the effect of support-
ing health care jobs during recessions, as does
the availability of private health insurance. Fur-

30 Monthly Labor Review July 1994

thermore, new treatments continually become
available and support additional health care jobs.
Women gained the vast majority of the jobs added
to services during the decline in total employ-
ment, mainly because the proportions of women
workers utilized in health care and social services
are extraordinarily high (at 82 percent and 78
percent).

Although overall government employment fell
slightly during the general decline in employ-
ment, women gained net government jobs. This
fact is partially explained by the fact that, while
employment in Federal Government dropped
greatly because of the termination of workers
hired to conduct the 1990 Decennial Census, the
number of jobs in State and local governments—
which employ a higher proportion of women—
grew. Growth occurred especially in local pub-
lic school systems, in which employment is 70
percent female.

The household survey shows that declines in
employment among men from June 1990 to Feb-
ruary 1992 were concentrated in the precision
production, craft, and repair occupations (down
600,000) and among operators, fabricators, and
laborers (down 750,000). These results are not
surprising considering the industrial composition
of job reductions.

The younger age groups among employed men
suffered the greatest job losses. The youngest
group of employed males, from 16 to 19 years
old, shrank by 500,000; those aged 20 to 24 de-
creased by 400,000; and those aged 25 to 34 de-
creased by 600,000. The number of employed
white men was reduced by | million, as employ-
ment of black men decreased by 200,000. Pro-
portionately, however, the losses were greater for
black men. Except for the decline in employed
16- to 19-year-old males, whose population was
reduced, these changes were primarily economic
effects rather than results of population shifts.

Job growth in recoveries

Comprehensive estimates of the numbers of
women and men with nonagricultural jobs have
been produced since 1964 from the survey of
employers. Since then, five recessions and five
recoveries have occurred. Table 2 shows job gain
or loss for both sexes during each employment
decline and recovery associated with these busi-
ness cycles. In the earliest recovery shown in the
table, from late 1970 to mid-1971, men gained
more jobs than women did. In the remaining four
recoveries, women gained substantially more
jobs than did men. Interestingly, even in the ear-
liest recovery of 1970 to 1971, men ended with
fewer jobs than at the preceding peak of employ-
ment, and women ended with more jobs.