Women's Participation in the Labour Force Reaches Lowest Level in 3 Decades due to COVID-19
The Royal Bank of Canada has released a report that shows 1.5 million Canadian women lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic and says women accounted for about 45 per cent of the decline in hours worked over the downturn, but will only make up 35 per cent of the recovery.
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Have Women Been Impacted the Same Way In Ontario?
The subsequent recession from the pandemic and economic shutdowns continues to have a great impact on women. Since the pandemic started 59% of the job losses have come from females, and 67% of part-time job losses have been from females.
June was the first month of job gains in Ontario since the lockdowns and most of the job gains went to males. Males saw an increase of 217, 000 jobs (6.3%), and females saw an increase of 160, 900 jobs (5.4%). Males saw a much larger increase in full-time jobs while females saw a slightly larger increase in part-time jobs.
The top three industries that women are employed in: Healthcare and social assistance; Wholesale and retail trade; and Educational services; are three sectors that have seen the largest declines. For men some of the top sectors that they are employed in have remained relatively stable during the lockdowns: Manufacturing, Construction and Professional, scientific and technical services.