Women are bearing the brunt of job losses

MOTHERS are almost 50 per cent more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, analysis has found.

An Institute for Fiscal Studies report has warned of “lasting harm” to women’s careers as a result of lockdown.

Of those who were previously in paid employment, mothers are 47 per cent more likely than fathers to have permanently lost their job or quit since February, the study found. Mothers are 23 per cent more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs, either temporarily or permanently, during the current crisis, and 14 per cent more likely to have been furloughed. Researchers carried out a survey of 3,500 families about how lockdown has affected their work and domestic responsibilities.

The report said: “Mothers are more likely than fathers to work in the sectors that are taking the biggest hit from the lockdown. This is different from previous recessions, in which maledominated sectors suffered the most.” Women are over-represented in the retail and hospitality sectors which have been among the hardest hit by the virus, previous studies have found.

“Since difficult labour market conditions are likely to persist for some time, reductions in paid work now may also persist even after the immediate health crisis is diminished,” researchers said.

“The disproportionate decrease in mothers’ paid work now suggests any long-lasting effects will be particularly severe for them.”

In addition to being economically worse off from the crisis, mothers are

also picking up the bulk of domestic chores, spending on average 2.3 more hours per day than men on tasks such as childcare and housework.

However, the report points out that despite doing less childcare, fathers have nearly doubled the time they spend on it. On average, fathers are now doing some childcare during eight hours of the day, compared with four hours in 2014-15. “This large increase in fathers’ involvement in childcare might have long-lasting impacts on how couples share childcare responsibilities,” researchers said.

It comes as official data reveal inequalities linked to working from home, with less than a third of workers able to do so in some parts of the country. Figures

from the Office for National Statistics show that only one in three workers in the East Midlands and East of England said that they worked from home during lockdown. The proportion of those who worked from home because of the pandemic was highest in London at 60.6 per cent, followed by the South East at 50.4 per cent.

The ONS data also showed that while Londoners are most likely to work from home, they are least likely to check in on neighbours. The most neighbourly area was the South West, where 64 per cent of people checked in on their neighbours at least once.

Separate ONS figures show that men still earn more than women in 72 per cent of households, down from around 78 per cent in 2004.