Reclaiming Common Sense

The War on (Wo)men - Men working 1.1 M Fewer Full-time Jobs than July 2007


The November Employment Situation Report, or Jobs Report, was released this past Friday at 8:30 in the morning. There was some discussing of a non-plus jobs report- not too not, not too cold. There was some discussing about how more seasonally adjusted part-time jobs created than seasonally adjusted full-time jobs.  The report was greatly forgotten by 8 pm that night. This column has continued to focus on the report. How is President Obama doing compared to his predecessors at the 94 month mark? He has a higher level of Effective Unemployment due to a lower level of participation.  Have all sectors recovered from the recession? No. There are five sectors that have fewer jobs than they had eight years ago during November of 2008. We  have an all-time record high level of people working two part-time jobs as of November 2016.


Another article series that this column has published is the "War on (Wo)men" series. Women saw less job loss during the Great Recession and have recovered faster. Men lost the majority of the full-time jobs during the recession and have not fully recovered. So what happened this month?


Men are working 1.1 Million fewer Full-time Jobs than they were working during July 2007. Men lost 10.6 million full-time jobs during the recession. You can than a job loss for this column. Men had recovered this summer - none years later - before losing full-time jobs, again. Men are working more part-time jobs now than prior to the recession. They are working 2.4 million more part-time jobs. This means that there has been a net gain of 1.1 million jobs for 10.8 million more men since July 2007, the peak of the pre-recession employment market.


Women are working 2 Million More Full-time Jobs and 1.9 Million more Part-time Jobs than they were during July 2007.  Women had lost 3.9 million full-time jobs, considerably fewer than what the men lost. Their recovery of full-time jobs happened during 2015 - one year ahead of the men. They have added 1.8 million full-time jobs since February of 2015.Women have added nearly 4 million total jobs for 11.8 million more workers.


There are fewer Unemployed Women and More Unemployed Men than during July 2007. The number that is discussed on a monthly basis is the unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, of course. Unemployed people cannot seasonally adjust their paychecks when they are unemployed, non-seasonally adjusted. There were 6.180 million more unemployed men during January 2010 than during July 2007, at the lowest point of the jobs recession. What happened to the other 4.5 million male workers?  They were not employed or unemployed - they were non-participants Right now there are over a half a million fewer unemployed female workers than during July 2007. More jobs - Fewer unemployed workers - that is how a recovery is supposed to work.


Lower Participation Rates for Men and Women under the Obama Recovery. We saw men participating at a rate of 74.34% during the Summer of 2007. Men are now participating at a rate of 68.81%. Women saw peak participation during July 2009. Someone had to bring home the bacon as men saw their jobs erode. Women were participating at 59.89% during July 2009. Women are currently participating at a rate of 56.83%. 


We have seen the potential male workforce increase from 112 million to 123 million since July 2007. Women have seen their numbers increase from 120 million to 131.5 million during the same period of time. Yes, more women wore working before the recession than men. Yes, more women are working now than men.


Potential employees are growing faster than jobs, men or women. More women are working than men. More men are currently unemployed, officially, than women with 3.865 million men unemployed and 3.201 million women currently unemployed. This means that the  participation rate will continue to fall until we create more jobs than workers. Participation has been improving for men and women - we are doing better than we were during 2015. We are not doing as well as we were during 2014. It took seven years to hit bottom on the participation curve. Will it take 6 more years to return to the pre-recession peak?


It's the economy.