How COVID Changed The Unemployment Rate For Women
Editor: Anita Newkirk Hackney
Covid-19 has dragged a majority of people under the bus. There are about 10 million cases and over 200,000 people who have died from the pandemic, and these numbers continue to increase on a daily basis. Many people are scraping by just to make ends meet due to losing their jobs during the pandemic.
According to Titan Alon, Matthias Doepke, Jane Olmstead-Rumsey and Michele Tertilt from ECONOFACT:
“Women’s unemployment rose by 12.8 percentage points between February and April—a 2.9 percentage points larger increase than men’s increase of 9.9 percentage points.”
When the coronavirus hit the United States, it spread like wildfire. People lost their jobs due to their positions putting them at high-risk such as case workers, teachers, public health workers and people working in child development. With the closure of some daycare services, parents’ childcare needs increased and reduced their availability to work.
According to Alon, Doepke, Olmstead-Rumsey, and Tertilt from ECONOFACT:
“[. . .] 32% of the U.S. workforce have children under the age of 14 at home and are affected by increased childcare needs. Since younger children require more supervision, many of these parents are unable to work as long as daycare center closures continue, and other forms of child care remain unavailable.”
According to Courtney Connley from CNBC.com:
“In the leisure and hospitality sector, women account for 52% of the industry workforce. In local and state government jobs, women account for 58% of the workforce. And in retail, women account for 48% of the workforce, but made up 61% of the industry’s job losses in April. Though 57.1% of the jobs women gained back last month were in leisure and hospitality and retail sectors, experts fear that women could be in jeopardy of losing those jobs again as states reimpose restrictions on service sector businesses.”
“Between February and April, women lost more than 12.1 million jobs as a result of the coronavirus and only a third of those jobs returned in May and June. When comparing the unemployment rate for women versus men, women ages 20 and over have an unemployment rate of 11.2% compared to men over 20 with an unemployment rate of 10.1%. The June unemployment rate is 1.3 times higher than the highest unemployment rate women faced during the Great Recession [. . .].”
From late April to July, the unemployment benefit was approximately $600 per week. At the start of August, that amount changed to approximately $100 per week. The $100 unemployment sum is not enough to pay for house payments, bills or food for families who are now living off unemployment. There are also single families that will have to pinch-pennies to keep their families fed and a roof over their heads during this time.
According to Alon, Doepke, Olmstead-Rumsey, and Tertilt from ECONOFACT:
“There are more single mothers than single fathers: 21% of children in the U.S. lived with a mother with no partner present in 2017, while 5% of children lived with a lone father. Among married households’ mothers provide more than 60% of total childcare. Women provide the majority of child care even in couples where both parents’ work full-time.”
There are also people who live in expensive areas like California, New York and other places in the United States that pay more for homes, food and amenities like water and electricity. Living in these areas makes it hard for people who will be making less money on unemployment. College students who are trying to further their education also face challenges during this time of social distancing.
From the increasing number of cases and deaths to a high unemployment rate, Covid-19 has dragged many people down into the dark underbelly of chaos. The death toll from the pandemic will continue to grow and cases escalate until a vaccine is developed for the public. Unemployment is another factor that is concerning as it deeply affects the female population. The only way the nation can counteract the unemployment rate at this time is to offer more remote positions to people who refuse to endanger family members to Covid-19.
