Men hit hardest by unemployment

There’s an old joke running around in conservative circles. The headline in the New York Times is “World Destroyed by Nuclear War.” The subhead reads, “Women, Minorities Hardest Hit.” If there were no double standard, the subhead on last week’s 25-year record high unemployment should have been “Men Hardest Hit.”

The unemployment rate among men is 10%, among women 7.6%. If you take a closer look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you find some interesting things. Women make up 47% of the work force and 47% of people 20 and over with jobs. That looks like an enormously high percentage to someone who grew up in the 1950s. In 1950 only 27% of “gainful workers” were women. In 1960 only 32% of the people in the work force were women.