Friday, July 17, 2009

It's a 'he-session', not a recession

Men are now more likely to be unemployed than women throughout every part of Melbourne as male unemployment climbs to its highest point in seven years.

Detailed figures released yesterday show an extra 282,500 men have joined the national unemployment queue so far this year, compared to only 50,200 women.

In inner suburbs including St Kilda, Prahran and Richmond the male unemployment rate of 6.5 per cent is almost double the female rate of 3.4 per cent. In outer-western Melbourne male rate of 9.9 per cent dwarfs the female rate of 5.8 per cent. There is no longer a single statistical region of Melbourne in which men have an advantage.

Only in some parts of regional Victoria do men still have an advantage over women...

The change reflects a collapse in employment in the finance sector. The Bureau of Statistics says 1 in every 10 full-time finance jobs have vanished over the last year - a loss of around 9000 full-time positions. By contrast, employment in Victoria's female-dominated retail sector has actually grown, surging 3500 between November and February.

The sinking fortunes of men are now building male long-term unemployment. Almost 70,000 unemployed men have now been without full-time work for more than a year, up from 41,000 in January.

Female long-term unemployment has climbed from 35,600 to 43,200.

So far this year 56,400 men have lost jobs Australiawide as 25,800 women have gained jobs.

Published in today's Age

Graphic: DryIcons