Women bear brunt of rise in unemployment
There is a case for arguing women make a disproportionately positive contribution to the economy of rural areas. Many professions which make rural places sustainable, adult social care, education, retail have a high proportion of female workers. This headline is therefore particularly worrying. The article itself provides deeper insights still looking at how women are classed economically has a major impact on unemployment figures.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of people out of
work has risen by 70,000 between December and February to 2.56 million – the
worst quarterly rise since Autumn 2011 – giving the UK an unemployment rate of
7.9%. Interestingly, the ONS has attributed the rise to the number of women
re-entering the labour market, becoming “unemployed” when they were previously
classed as “economically inactive”.