Washington, U.S.A. — New analysis released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) of employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that, while men have seen faster job growth than in the recovery, women’s job growth sped up in the third year. Within each industry, however, women have either lost proportionately more jobs or gained proportionately fewer jobs than men over the course of the last three years.

June 2012 marks the end of three years of recovery since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, a period that saw job gains for both women and men of more than 500,000 in several industries (Education and Health Services for women, Professional and Business Services for men and women, and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities for men).

In year three of the recovery (July 2011 – June 2012), men gained 19,000 fewer jobs than they did in year two (July 2010 – June 2011). In contrast, women gained 500,000 more jobs in year three than they did in year two.

Still, men are slightly ahead overall in terms of job growth, but women are finally beginning to catch up. As of June 2012, women have regained 38.7 percent of the jobs they lost in the recession, while men have regained 45.2 percent of the jobs they lost in the recession.

Women have either lost proportionately more jobs or gained proportionately fewer jobs than men in every industry over the course of the last three years. Even in the female-dominated Education and Health Services industry, men’s employment increased by 9.1 percent between June 2009 and June 2012, while women’s employment increased by just 4.8 percent. Still growth in this sector helped women pick up 713,000 jobs in the last three years and 64.5 percent of the 1.1 million jobs added to payrolls in the industry since June 2009.

“The recovery is finally reaching women,” said Dr. Heidi Hartmann, president of IWPR and a labor economist. “Women got more than one-third of the job gains in the third year of the recovery, much better than their share the previous year, despite the fact that women are bearing the brunt of state and local government cuts,” she said. “Economists don’t know why men seem to have a hiring or layoff advantage in every industry, but the start of a catch-up in year three is good news for women.”

For men and women considered together, over the last three years of the recovery, the largest growths in payroll numbers were seen in “Professional and Business Services” (1.4 million jobs) and “Education and Health Services” (1.1 million jobs). Men and women both lost the largest number of jobs in “Government” (a combined loss of 633,000 jobs across all three levels of government). Job loss in the public sector disproportionately affected women who lost 64.1 percent of the 633,000 jobs eliminated.

The industries with the greatest gender difference in job change were “Mining and Logging,” where men’s employment grew by 23.6 percent while women’s employment grew by 17.5 percent, and “Manufacturing,” where men’s employment increased by 4.0 percent and women’s employment actually decreased by 2.7 percent. The “Leisure and Hospitality” industry, where men’s employment grew by 4.3 percent and women’s employment grew by 3.5 percent, had the smallest gender difference in job gains.

In the three years of the recovery, women gained just over half a million jobs and men nearly a million jobs in “Business and Professional Services” (504,000 for women and 937,000 for men). While women gained more than half a million jobs in “Education and Health Services” (713,000), men gained more than a half million jobs in “Trade, Transportation, and Utilities” (613,000).

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Austin, U.S.A. — In another example of how Texas is leading the nation’s economic recovery, the real estate market continues to show marked improvements over last year, according to the 2012-Q2 edition of the Texas Quarterly Housing Report issued today by the Texas Association of Realtors. Featuring 13 percent more single family home sales than the same quarter of the prior year and a median price that was seven percent higher than 2011-Q2, the results demonstrate that Texas’ economic recovery is robust and widespread throughout the state.

“The momentum we saw in the first quarter of this year is continuing and we’re seeing that now not only in increased sales volume, but also in a strong increase in the median price,” said Joe Stewart, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors. “That is good news for Texas homeowners who have been thinking of moving up, but who have remained on the sidelines because they’re concerned about earning full value for their current home.”

In the second quarter of 2012, 67,334 single family homes were sold in Texas, which is 13.04 percent more than the second quarter of 2011. In addition, the median price in the second quarter of 2012 was $161,400, which is 7.45 percent more than 2011-Q2.

“One of the most noteworthy aspects of this quarter’s results is the consistency across markets,” said Jim Gaines, Ph.D., an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “Occasionally, statewide results can be dominated by trends in Texas’ largest markets due to the large volume of real estate transactions they represent. However, in this case, the increases in both sales volume and median price are seen throughout most of the 48 Texas markets included in the report.”

In addition to improvements in sales volume and median price in the second quarter of 2012, the “months inventory” figure improved. Indicating the balance between supply and demand in the real estate market, the Texas market featured 5.9 months of inventory in 2012-Q2, which is 2.2 months less than 2011-Q2. The Real Estate Center cites 6.5 months of inventory as a market in which demand is balanced with supply.

Gaines explained, “At 5.9 months of inventory, Texas is bordering on a sellers’ market. However, I think that is due as much to a decrease in supply – from fewer foreclosures, lack of new speculative home building and apprehensive homeowners not listing properties – as it is to increasing demand. Nonetheless, homebuyers should expect competition for desirable properties.”

Chairman Stewart concluded, “Texas has been leading the economic recovery and these results are more proof that our state is one of the nation’s best places to own a home. Now, we must protect the high quality of life that fueled that recovery and work on absorbing the growth of our state. That is the focus of the Texas Association of Realtors as we once again begin preparing to advocate for Texas homeowners during the 83rd session of the Texas Legislature in 2013.”

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