destructive falls in real wages in both Indonesia and Argentina. Employment patterns were different, however. In Indonesia, female employment fell markedly less than male employment, as women entered self and family employment to offset job losses in the formal sector (Smith et al, 2002). Employment in medium and large manufacturing firms also declined more for men than women, as women were overrepresented in larger and exporting firms, which were more resilient to the crisis. (Hallward-Driemeier et al, 2010). During Argentina’s 1995 crisis, however, employment fell equally for both men and women (Mckenzie, 2004).

_Most preliminary studies of the current crisis have mostly emphasized large increases in youth unemployment._<sup>_7_</sup> Most of this evidence is from OECD countries, and indicates that youth unemployment skyrocketed in 2009. In addition, there are some indications that youth were more likely to shift to informal sector employment in six Latin American countries (Ha et al., 2010). This appears to be more consistent with past experience in Indonesia than Argentina. In Indonesia, employment declined slightly more for youth than adults, largely because older women rejoined the labor force in large numbers. Young workers, particularly women, experienced somewhat larger wage declines than their older counterparts. In Argentina, meanwhile, young and old workers experienced similar wage and employment changes.

_Existing analyses of the labor market effects of the current crisis on men and women are mixed._ Preliminary ILO estimates suggest that men and women have experienced roughly equal increases in unemployment, from which they conclude that the downturn has affected male and female outcomes more or less equally (ILO, 2010). Other studies, mostly drawing on data from Europe and the US, suggest that men suffered larger unemployment increases than women due to their concentration in banking and finance, and export oriented industry sector (Barakat, et al, 2010, Eurostat 2009, Elsby 2010, World Bank 2010c).

_The experience of educated workers depends on the nature of the crisis, although some studies suggest the current crisis has led to larger employment reductions for less educated workers._ In the US, the current recession reduced employment more for less educated workers (Elsby et al., 2010). Similarly, in South Africa, additional education substantially reduced the risk of employment loss (Leung et al., 2010). Finally, preliminary evidence from China suggests that the crisis disproportionately affected unskilled migrant workers (Cai et al., 2010).<sup>8</sup> This pattern is different from the Indonesian and Argentinian crises, where employment and earnings losses were greatest for better educated women. In both countries, declines in incomes were similar for less educated and better educated men, but significantly larger for educated women than less educated women. Educated women were also particularly likely to lose their job or exit employment.

> _7_ Examples include Ha et al., 2010, Barakat et al. 2010,   IMF and ILO, 2010, Bell and Blanchflower, 2010, Verick, 2010, OECD 2010

> 8 Mixed results are also found when looking at household income or consumption. Households with better educated heads experienced smaller consumption drops in Peru and Argentina (Glewwe and Hall, 1998 and Corbacho et al., 2007) but larger income and consumption reductions in Mexico (Mckenzie, 2004)

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