It's no secret that COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact on the workplace. For many of us, it's only changed the way that we work, but it's prevented many others from being able to work at all. Many people lost their jobs during the pandemic, but women were disproportionately effected In fact, women lost over 7 million more jobs than men did. In this episode of Yoh Back to Work podcast series, our Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Kathleen King, and our host, Jason Rocker, discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the job market particularly for women. They discuss the ways in which women have experienced a greater impact and what organizations can do to reverse this trend and bring women back to the workplace.
A Disproportionate Loss
According to a nationwide study conducted in early 2021, women lost over 12 million jobs during the pandemic's recession while men lost 4.4 million jobs. The study also found that from February 2020 to February 2021, more than 2.3 million women dropped out of the labor force completely, compared to the 1.8 million men who dropped out.
This is an extremely disproportionate employment loss, especially when you consider the fact that men already comprised of a greater percentage of the U.S. workforce before the pandemic hit. For a deeper look into these statistics and what it means for the future of our nation's workforce, listen to our podcast.
Strategies To Bring Women Back
As our nation gradually returns to the workplace, it's vital that organizations make an effort to ensure all of the women who lost their jobs during the pandemic are re-entering the workforce. Throughout the podcast, Kathleen shares strategies companies should be using to bring women back to work. The key to success for employers is to ask women what they want, listen to their responses, and implement changes to reasonably accommodate them. Many people are looking for a hybrid return to work, a flexible work schedule, and opportunities for career growth.
Companies should also be exploring new employee retention strategies to make sure more women don't continue to leave the workforce. Showing appreciation to the workers who have stuck around and worked hard throughout the pandemic is a very important step as businesses make their return to normalcy.
As long as companies are willing to ensure their employees' voices are heard and accommodate their requests, more women should be re-entering the workforce in no time.
