How men and women have fared in the post-recession UK jobs market

This information is available for download

Format	Title	File size
	How men and women have fared in the post-recession UK jobs market Published 14 Dec 2011	File size: 198 KB

About this download

The recession of 2008-9 is sometimes referred to as a ‘mancession’ because men were hit relatively hard when it came to jobs, as women accounted for only around a fifth of the fall in employment during the recession and only around a third of the rise in unemployment. But there is a widespread expectation that the opposite will occur in the wake of ongoing large scale public sector downsizing, given that two-thirds of public sector workers are women.

However, the CIPD's latest Work Audit explores official statistics which show that while men benefited most during the initial post-recession jobs recovery in 2010, it’s been tough for both sexes in the 2011 jobs market. Indeed, women have actually fared slightly better than men despite public sector cutbacks and a sharp fall in part-time employment.