Renew America as posted an article complaining that women may break even with men in the work force, despite that fact that in 2000 women made up 50.9 percent of the US population. Actually, the article complains that "USA Today rejoices in man-cession, hails rise of gender equality". The author acknowledges that the original USA Today article states:
It's no secret that men been hit hard in the current recession. The USA Today article acknowledges that men have lost 74% of jobs since December 2007, with women losing the remaining 26%. The reason is men predominate in construction and manufacturing, sectors that have suffered a massive hemorrhaging of jobs.
The sad thing is, that the Right Wing lase faire market has created these problems in the first place and they need to get used to it.
Manufacturing jobs have gone over seas and they're not coming back. With soaring health care costs, there's simply no way to compete on the costs of the manufacture of anything that can be reasonable shipped by boat or plane. The few manufacturing jobs that may remain are more and more likely to go to women, simply because women work for 77% of the wages of men.
Thanks to the wisdom of an unregulated Wall Street, construction will be "on hold" for years to come. The residential market is already hammered and thats with banks holding and estimated 70% of their repossessed inventory OFF the market. In April, it was estimated that banks were already sitting on over 600,000 houses.
Monthly home forclosure stats continue to escelate. With 16% of Americans either unemployed or under-employed, prime mortgage foreclosure rates are outpacing sub-prime. Add to those factors, the "second wave" of foreclosures (Alt-A loans) that are now building up to full steam.
In states that require sheriffs sales, foreclosed homes are put on the block with an opening bid of just 60% of current market value. In cities like Cleveland, OH, homes foreclosed for $80,000 mortgages are being valued at just over $10,000 in current value and have an opening bid of under $8,000. (Figures are for a 4 bedroom, 2 bath w/un-attached 2 car garage). This isn't a once in a lifetime deal. Cleveland has averaging over 150 homes a week on the auction block since the start of the year.
We're also at the head of the Commercial Foreclosure wave. Its hard to imagine a justification for building new commercial property in light of thousands of square footage of commercial real estate now available at bargain sale prices.
It's pretty clear that if you're in construction, this might be a time to learn a new trade. But if you're considering that still pushed stand-by of computer programming, don't bother unless you can live on $3/hour, since those jobs have already gone off shore under the Bush Administration. IBM, just one of the major IT giants, has let go over 10,000 American workers so far this year (while hiring over 50,000 off-shore workers).
Where IBM is hiring in 2009:
Asia/Pacific: 13,376
CEEMEA: 3,988
Europe: 2,923
India: 18,873
Japan: 868
Latin America: 7,112
USA: 3,514
Canada: 820
reference
Somehow, the folks at Renew America view this as a twisted "socialist agenda" aimed at taking jobs from men and making women equal in the work force. The writer states (his emphasis):
That's right, guys, if you got laid off as a $35 an hour crane operator or tool-and-die worker, not to worry. With a little training you can become a home health aide, social worker, or teacher's assistant!
Well, guys, if you're too good to work as a social worker or teacher, there's always work at the fast food places.
The author concludes:
For millennia, men have been the providers and protectors of their families. But now we are being instructed to sweep that shibboleth into the dust-heap of history. USA Today has decreed it doesn't matter how much anguish and misfortune families suffer from the lay-off of male breadwinners.
All that matters are the green-shaded tallies of the social bean-counters.
Guess he's forgetting that many of those men have walked away from their "breadwinner" role. With over 40% of babies now being born to single women and nearly 50 percent of marriages failing.