This Time, Men Are Finding Jobs Faster Than Women

The Great Recession hit men especially hard. But in the long, shaky recovery, they’re now outpacing women in finding employment. That’s surprising because in past recoveries, women have tended to get re-employed faster than men — making this another of the many ways in which this recovery is different.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, men gained 768,000 jobs and lowered their unemployment rate by 1.1 percentage points to 9.5% from June 2009 to May 2011. But women actually lost 218,000 jobs during the same period and increased their unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points to 8.5%.

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