Although in the early months of the downturn it was feared that women might be affected to a greater extent, more recent labour market data from the Office for National Statistics shows the reverse to have been the case. In labour market terms, men have fared worse than women during the recession.

The total employment level for men aged 16 and over fell by 556,000 to 15.4 million in the three months to January 2010 compared with the same period two years ago.

For women, the decline was much smaller as employment levels fell over that same period by 17,000 to 13.5 million.

In employment rate terms, for men aged 16 and over, there was a 3.9% drop to 75.0% while the employment rate for women fell by 1.1% to 69.2%.

The total number of men aged 16 and over who were defined as unemployed rose by 572,000 to 1.511 million, compared with a rise of 254,000 to 938,000 for women.

The unemployment rate for men aged 16 and over rose by 3.4% to 9.0%, while the increase for women was 1.7%, taking their unemployment rate up to 6.5%.

The main reason why male employment has been affected more is that the recession had greater impact on the sectors of the economy where male employment is traditionally higher, such as manufacturing and construction.

In sectors where the employment mix was more equal (such as the business and financial services sector or the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector) the fall in jobs experienced by men and women was very similar.

One other main factor was that the sector which continued to grow throughout the recession (education, health and public administration) was one where seven out of ten jobs were held by females.

(May 2010)