Women leave working life faster than men, and childcare plays a major role in emigration: study

TORONTO – Men take jobs under the pressure and opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic three times as fast as women are leaving the workforce a new report from the Royal Bank.

More than 20,000 women left the workforce between February and October, while about 68,000 men entered, according to the study published Thursday.

The report said the pandemic and child-rearing requirements are likely to be responsible for women’s exit from the labor market, while men benefit from growth in the science, technology, engineering and maths where they dominate.

Dawn Desjardins, RBC’s deputy chief economist and co-author of the report, said this pattern could slow economic recovery from the pandemic and affect the future of largely female-dominated industries.

“We need to see women re-enter the labor market to ensure that our economy can achieve the stronger growth rates in the future,” she said.

Desjardins and co-author Carrie Freestone are alarmed to see that women between the ages of 20 and 24 and between 35 and 39 are quitting their jobs faster than most other cohorts.

Some of them return to school for new jobs and skills, while others raise children. Their study found that mothers with children under six made up only 41 percent of the labor force in February and still accounted for two-thirds of churn.

Meanwhile, men are taking up jobs three times as fast as women are leaving theirs because they have managed to find employment with companies that are benefiting from the increased demand for digital and e-commerce services that the pandemic created.

Desjardins and Freestone are particularly concerned because many women who have lost their jobs during the pandemic are not being laid off temporarily and are not looking for work like their male counterparts.

They say this could happen because women are more likely to work in industries to recover from COVID-19 restrictions, their ability to work from home may be much lower than men as they are in the hospitality industry, the retail and arts sectors dominate, and they often take on heavier child-rearing tasks.

“Things are not getting much better right now, so they may just have left the job market temporarily while trying to figure out what to do next,” Desjardins said.

“We have also seen a decrease in the capacity for daycare, and therefore for women who are employed and have young children, who also play a role.”

These trends largely affect women with children under the age of six, while those with children between the ages of six and 17 appear to be returning to work, Desjardins said.

While older women are not leaving the workforce to the same extent, they are also affected, said Vandana Juneja, executive director of Catalyst Canada, a nonprofit that promotes the advancement of women in the workforce.

“If there are often difficult conversations, these are often given to women to lead through this time of crisis,” she said.

She referred to a September study by McKinsey and Co. and LeanIn.org that found women in senior management positions are much more likely than men at the same level to feel burned out, pressured to work harder, and “like they are.” have to”. Always on.”‘

They are also 1.5 times more likely than men in senior management positions to think about relocating or leaving the workforce due to COVID-19, and almost three in four cite burnout as the main reason.

Of the 48,000 retail, hospitality and hospitality workers who lost their jobs in October, Desjardins said about 80 percent were women and were responsible for almost twice as many in the decline in labor force participation compared to men.

Earlier this year, Desjardins penned a report that said the pandemic had pushed women’s participation to the lowest level in three decades, in stark contrast to previous recessions in which men were laid off far more often than women.

Such results are worrying but not surprising, Juneja said.

They feel that they highlight why it is so important for companies to exercise empathy and provide flexibility that doesn’t just focus on hours.

This means that there are guidelines that take into account those who are caring for children or elderly or sick family members.

“We know there is no one-size-fits-all solution to increasing equity in the workplace, but there are a number of things companies can and should do during this pandemic.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on November 19, 2020.