January 19th, 2021
Across our region there are uneven employment rates between men and women. As of 2019, Rockland County had the greatest difference with only 70 percent of women between the ages 20-64 employed while for men this rate was 80 percent. In Ulster and Greene Counties, the percent of women employed was higher than men, but all other counties in the Hudson Valley region, the opposite was true. Sullivan had nearly the same rates for both men and women (men were up by 0.3 percent). A national Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for December shows that in the final month of 2020 women saw a net loss of jobs while men saw a net gain of jobs. Many of the sectors in which women work in higher numbers have been hardest hit by the impact of COVID including food service and hospitality, and education. And while both men and women have made the difficult choice of dropping out of the workforce in order to stay home with children since schools are closed, women have done so at four times the rate. It is too early to know how our economy will recover from the havoc wrecked by COVID. What will men and women’s employment rates look like in a year from now?
