Women’s Unemployment Rate Higher Than Men’s For First Time in Nearly Two Years; Microsoft CEO’s ‘Karma’ Remark

“With women’s unemployment rate higher than men’s for the first time in nearly two years, and men gaining about 60 percent of the jobs added over the past year, it’s past time to accelerate the recovery for women and men,” said Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security.  Lawmakers can do that by raising wages for workers in low-wage jobs — two-thirds of whom are women, promoting equal pay, supporting workers with family responsibilities, and investing in public services that create jobs for women and men.”

Adult women’s unemployment rate was higher than men’s in September for the first time since December 2012:

• Unemployment declined for both adult women and men (20 and older) in September, though the drop was steeper for adult men:  adult women’s unemployment rate declined to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent in August and adult men’s declined to 5.3 percent from 5.7 percent.
• In September adult women’s unemployment rate was 0.2 percentage points above adult men’s, marking the first time adult women’s unemployment rate was higher than adult men’s since December 2012. Before last month, December 2012 was the only time in the last eight years that women’s unemployment rate had been higher than men’s.
• Over the last year, adult men’s unemployment has declined more sharply than adult women’s, dropping from 5.3 percent in September 2014 from 7.0 percent in September 2013, a decline of 1.7 percentage points.  Over the same time period adult women’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent from 6.2 percent, a decline of 0.7 percentage points.
• The overall unemployment rate in September was 5.9 percent, down from 6.1 percent in August and 7.2 percent from September 2013.

Some vulnerable groups saw improvement in their unemployment rates in September, though they remained substantially higher than the overall unemployment rate:

• Unemployment rates declined in September from August for adult African American women (down to 9.6 percent from 10.6 percent), adult Hispanic women (down to 7.2 percent from 8.1 percent), adult Hispanic men (down to 4.8 percent from 5.9 percent), and single mothers (down to 8.3 percent from 9.3 percent).  White men’s unemployment rate declined to 4.4 percent from 4.9 percent.
• Unemployment rates rose in September for adult African American men (up to 11.0 percent from 10.8 percent) and were flat for adult white women at 4.8 percent.
• 3.0 million Americans were long-term unemployed (looking for work for 27 weeks or longer) in September 2014, the same as the prior month.  Similar to August, about one-third of jobless adult women and men were long-term unemployed in September.

Women accounted for 41 percent of the jobs added in September, matching their share of net job gains over the last year:

• In September women added 101,000 jobs, accounting for 40.7 percent of total job gains (248,000 jobs). This matches their share of net growth over the last year; from September 2013 to September 2014 women added 1,090,000 jobs, accounting for 41.4 percent of total net gains (2,635,000 jobs).
• Women’s largest gains in September were in professional & business (+29,000), private education & health services (+24,000), retail (+16,600) and leisure & hospitality (+16,000).  Largest losses were in wholesale trade (-7,600) and transportation and warehousing (-4,100).
• Men’s largest gains in September were in professional & business services, (+52,000), retail (+18,700), leisure & hospitality (+17,000), and construction (+15,000).  Largest losses were in other services (-6,000).