82% of job losses hitting men. Disemployed men not doing more at home
3 million men have lost their jobs since December 2007! That’s 82% of the 3.6 million jobs lost:
82 percent of the job losses have befallen men, who are heavily represented in distressed industries like manufacturing and construction. Women tend to be employed in areas like education and health care, which are less sensitive to economic ups and downs, and in jobs that allow more time for child care and other domestic work.
Shockingly — to me, anyhow — those 3,000,000 men aren’t doing any more work around the house than they were before they lost their jobs. They’re not taking care of their kids more or doing more chores or picking up the slack if their wives are still employed outside the home:
When women are unemployed and looking for a job, the time they spend daily taking care of children nearly doubles. Unemployed men’s child care duties, by contrast, are virtually identical to those of their working counterparts, and they instead spend more time sleeping, watching TV and looking for a job, along with other domestic activities.
Many of the unemployed men interviewed say they have tried to help out with cooking, veterinarian appointments and other chores, but they have not had time to do more because job-hunting consumes their days.
“The main priority is finding a job and putting in the time to do that,” says John Baruch, in Arlington Heights, Ill., who estimates he spends 35 to 45 hours a week looking for work since being laid off in January 2008.
While he has helped care for his wife’s aging parents, the couple still sometimes butt heads over who does things like walking the dog, now that he is out of work. He puts it this way: “As one of the people who runs one of the career centers I’ve been to told me: ‘You’re out of a job, but it’s not your time to paint the house and fix the car. Your job is about finding the next job.’”
I’m disappointed in my (average) fellow man. Come on, guys! Let’s pitch in and contribute to running the family the best we can. There are 168 hours in a week. Even if you’re really searching for work 40 hours/week (which I doubt), that still leaves 128 hours to be a great dad and husband.
Posted by James on Saturday, February 07, 2009