Jobs projections could mean big changes for men and women
In a radically shifting jobs market, men increasingly could find themselves doing “women’s work.”
Fields dominated by women are expected to thrive over the next decade and longer while those heavily populated by men are shrinking, according to a new report from job search site Indeed.
A particularly hard- hit pool of workers, the male- dominated manufacturing and agriculture fields, has lost jobs to automation. Meanwhile, the fastestgrowing sector, health care, overwhelmingly employs women.
“The labor market continues to shift away from traditionally male jobs toward traditionally female jobs,” says Jed Kolko, the chief economist at Indeed and author of the report.
Female- dominated jobs are projected to grow nearly twice as fast as jobs filled primarily by men, Kolko says, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The diverging fates of the American workforce reflect a labor market segregated by gender, education and the continuing evolution of job skills required in the 21st- century economy.
More than one- third of men ( 36%) work in occupations that are at least 80% male; 31% of women work in occupations that are at least 80% female, according to the U. S. Census.
The calculus presents a vexing challenge to President Trump, who vowed on the campaign trail to bring back manufacturing jobs to the heartland.
Advances in automation may make it impossible to ramp up hiring in manufacturing, Kolko says.
As traditionally male jobs grow at a slower rate, men are more likely to seek retraining and look into jobs in health care such as nursing, home care and occupational therapy, the report says.
They also could pursue work as ambulance drivers, emergency medical technicians and Web developers, other fast- growing jobs routinely occupied by men.
Steve Santos, 44, was an environmental biologist until the housing crisis slowed business, so he went back to school and became a nurse in 2015. “There is a need for nurses, it’s a stable profession that pays well, and you help people,” the San Francisco resident says.
Another Trump campaign promise, a $ 1 trillion infrastructure plan, could yield jobs in construction.
There is a silver lining in one industry for both sexes: Growth in tech- related occupations such as software developers, information- system managers and computer- information research scientists offers plenty of opportunities.