Women make up an astonishing 100% of US job losses in December
The COVID-19 pandemic has once again amplified the ongoing issue of gender inequality for women in the U.S. workforce. The Labor Bureau released its monthly statistics for December 2020 and the results were startling.
Employers cut 140,000 jobs in December, a troubling increase in job loss from November. But perhaps more shocking is that the data showed that women accounted for all of the job losses, losing 156,000 jobs while men gained 16,000.
An even more disappointing reality for women of color: a separate survey showed that Black and Latina women lost jobs while white women made gains.
According to CNN: “Black and Latina women disproportionately work in some of the hardest-hit sectors in the pandemic, often in roles that lack paid sick leave and the ability to work from home. As schools and day cares closed, many were forced to make hard trade-offs between work and parenting.”
C. Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research said, “We don’t have the pandemic under control. Schools and day cares are still closing, and we know that’s what’s impacting women’s ability to reenter the workforce and sustain jobs.”
As we often say at Children’s Council, “Without child care, San Francisco doesn’t work.” For more than 45 years, we’ve worked hard to ensure that early educators in our community are supported, so that San Francisco parents can work and their children can thrive.
But now, as we reach the one-year mark of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s critical that everyone – especially our city leaders and business community – understands that child care is the key to getting our city and region back to work.
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