“So far, the data don’t bare out a story of a mass movement of men switching to the health care and education. When the recession began, 77.5% of the jobs in these two industries employed women. As of May, that number fell to 76.8%, barely any change.

‘The number of men moving into traditional female dominated fields is a trickle rather than a surge,’ said Ariane Hegewisch , a study director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research . ‘We do not know whether there will be a tipping point at some stage.’ ”