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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2020
Contact: Keri A. Potts | 860-839-3438 | potts@iwpr.org
Economic Progress Stalls for Women
Statement from Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR): Jobs data show substantially slowed growth since September. For the first time in the COVID-19 recession, women have gained fewer jobs than men. This is significant because women have lost more jobs than men overall since February (5.8 million and 5.0 million respectively) and would need to gain a larger percentage of jobs during the recovery in order for both men and women to reach previous employment levels.
- Progress Slows: There were 661,000 non-farm payroll positions added since September, compared with 1.4 million in the previous reporting period. This is far lower than the Dow Jones’ estimate of 800,000.
- Impact on Women: Women gained 286,000 jobs, a mere 43.3% of the jobs increase, compared with 873,000 jobs gained in August.
- Race and Unemployment: Black and Hispanic workers continue to experience disproportionately high levels of unemployment, with Hispanic women experiencing the only increase in unemployment, from 10.5% in August to 11.0% in September.
Data show that women continue to be impacted more strongly than men by the COVID recession; without concerted public policy efforts, these trends threaten to further worsen racial and gender inequity.
Click on figures to view
IWPR will release its quick figure analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment numbers next week.
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Contact: Keri A. Potts, IWPR Vice President External Affairs | potts@iwpr.org | 860-839-3438