Job Losses in the Current Recession: Who Has Been Hit the Hardest?
The current recession has caused widespread hardship, especially for those who have
lost their jobs. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has shed
nearly 6.7 million jobs, with losses spanning across nearly all sectors of employment.
While no particular group has been immune to the sizeable job losses, some have
experienced greater job losses than others.
Increases in unemployment by race and marital status shows that the discrepancy between
male and female unemployment has been most pronounced among white men and white
women, and among married men and married women. For example, the rise in unemploy-
ment has been nearly twice as high for married men (162%) as for married women (85%).
Among women, both married women and single women who are heads of households have
experienced similar increases in unemployment since the start of the recession (85% for
married women and 89% for single heads of household). The relatively smaller increase in
unemployment among all women (71%) is evidence that childless, unmarried women have
experienced a smaller increase in unemployment than married women or single women
with children.
The increase in the number of unemployed workers in the oldest, age 55+ group (133%)
has been more than four times that of the youngest, age 16-19 group (30%). Workers
in the middle age groups (ages 25-54), which tend to have the highest labor force participation
rates, have all experienced unemployment increases in excess of 100%, meaning that there
were twice as many unemployed workers in July 2009 as in December 2007.