The Great Recession was less severe for women than it was for men, according to a Statistics Canada report released Thursday.
In 2009, the employment rate for women decreased 1% after reaching a historic high of 59.3% in 2008.
That’s compared with men, who saw their employment rate decline 2.9% to 65.2% in 2009.
The national statistical agency said these impacts repeated a pattern seen in the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s.
“Men were hit harder by the downturn because the industries hardest hit by employment losses in 2009 were male dominated,” the report said. “They included those in the goods-producing sector, mainly manufacturing, construction and natural resources.”
Women, however, find more work in service industries such as health care, education and social assistance where employment continued to rise.
The data comes out of a larger report that focused on employment for women in Canada between 1976 and 2009.
According to the report, women have increased their presence in the Canadian work scene by leaps and bounds over the past three decades.
In 2009, 72.9% of women with children under the age of 16 had jobs compared with a rate of 39.1% in 1976.
As well, 64.4% of women with children under the age of 3 were employed in 2009 compared with 27.6% in 1976.
And seven out of 10 part-time workers in 2009 were women.
But the report also said single mothers are less likely to be employed than mothers in two-parent families, a trend Statistics Canada described as a “major shift” from the late 1970s.