Women’s working hours take smaller pandemic hit than men’s: report

LONDON: Women’s working hours have fallen less than men’s during the pandemic despite predictions their employment would be worse affected by the virus crisis, new research has suggested.

The fall in women’s total hours worked has been around a third smaller than for men, said the Resolution Foundation.

The employment rate among men has fallen by 2.4 per cent since the start of the crisis, driven by a sharp fall in self-employment, compared to a 0.8 per cent fall for women, said the think tank.

It added that full-time female employment has actually increased over the course of the crisis. By the start of 2021average working hours among women who do not have children actually reached a record high, up by 5 per cent since the start of the pandemic, said

the report.

Hannah Slaughter, economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “At the start of the crisis, many people warned of a ‘shecession’ as female-dominated sectors such as retail were shut down.

“But the economic hit of Covid-19 crisis has, in fact, seen greater overall falls in employment for men than women. Full-time female employment has actually risen while women without children who kept their jobs are in fact working longer hours than before the crisis.”

The foundation said the relatively small labour market hit among women has been driven partly by their concentration in the public sector, where employment has remained relatively steady, as well as a continuation of pre-crisis trends as women have worked longer hours to protect stagnant household incomes.