Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 12 www.hrreporter.com Women 'falling out of labour force' in pandemic Years of advancement for women in the workforce came to a crashing halt for many with the COVID-19 outbreak — but there's hope on the horizon with promised changes to childcare and EI, finds John Dujay estheticians and the like, women have been disproportionately represented in the sectors that are in the throes of yet another lockdown with the second wave. In all of these different ways, women have been hugely d i s p r o p o r t i o n a t e l y i m p a c t e d b y the pandemic." Women accounted for 300,000 lost jobs between February and March, representing 70 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 54 who lost work during that time, says the report. Overall, 1.5 million women have lost jobs since the outbreak began. Various sectors hit hard Another sector that was slammed hard was not-for-profit organizations. in February... This group is experiencing an outsized impact." Certain categories more impacted For many women in female-dominated job classes, the numbers are even more worrying, according to another report. "Women lost jobs at a rate of two to one compared to men, so that hit women's sectors very hard," says Ann Decter, senior director of community initiatives at the Canadian Women's Foundation in Toronto. "We find more women among lower- wage earners than men. There was so much heavy impact and we've seen a slower recovery for women." Resetting Normal: Women, Decent Work and Canada's Fractured Care Economy was jointly produced by the Canadian Women's Foundation, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN). The primary and long-term care areas of health care were particularly hard hit by COVID-19, especially economically, found the report. Around 90 per cent of all nurses and personal support workers (PSWs) are women. "Women are employed largely in essential worker categories that have been at the forefront of containing and fighting the pandemic, whether that's health-care workers, personal support workers and long-term care. They've also been disproportionately impacted as [those] employed in front-facing service sectors have experienced huge layoffs," says Katherine Scott, senior researcher at the CCPA in Ottawa. "[In] personal services businesses, "The pandemic has really impacted non-profit, which will impact the 1.6 million women who work in our labour force," says Pamela Uppal, policy advisor at ONN in Toronto. The sector, which includes community and primary care facilities, experienced income losses that cut deep. "Between March and June, a lot of non-profits resorted to pay cuts, and 10 per cent of respondents [to the report] were using their own personal funds to meet the financial needs of their organization," she says. Some daycare centres are part of the non-profit sector and with one in five on the brink of permanent closure, this is distressing for many women, says Uppal. "It' ll impact jobs in our sector, and that disproportionately impacts women. Anecdotally, we have been hearing that women are leaving our sector." The lack of safe and affordable childcare has been another challenge, she says, as a lot of women rely on daycare to be able to work. In the accommodation and food services sectors, women accounted for about 80 per cent of layoffs, found the RBC report, in contrast to the professional, scientific WOMEN HIT HARD BY COVID-19 IN CANADA "Women are employed largely in essential worker categories that have been at the forefront of fighting the pandemic." Katherine Scott, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 21,000 Number of women between February and October who fell out of the labour force, while 60,000 men joined 300,000 Number of jobs lost by women between February and March, representing 70 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 54 who lost work during that time 80 per cent Percentage of layoffs in the accommodation and food services sectors involving women 90 per cent Percentage of nurses and personal support workers (PSWs) who are women THE coronavirus pandemic has drastically affected many workers, but for Canadian women, the impact is much more negative than it has been for men. "Women are falling out of the labour force while men are joining it," says Carrie Freestone, economist at RBC in Toronto and author of the report Canadian Women Continue to Exit the Labour Force. "Between February and October, just under 21,000 women fell out of the labour force and 60,000 men joined." "Women's participation was at the lowest level in 18 years," she says. Women in the age groups of 20 to 24 and 35 to 39 left the labour force even faster than other groups, says Freestone. "Two-thirds of the women aged 35 to 39 who fell out of the labour force between February and October had a young child under six and they only made up 41 per cent of the labour force Sources: RBC, Canadian Women's Foundation, CCPA, ONN

• Cover