FINANCIAL TIMES: Women more likely to be unemployed than men

Description

Britain was unusual among European countries in historically having a higher unemployment rate for men rather than women, said Jill Rubery, a professor of economics at Manchester business school.

Partly this was because women were often classed as inactive while they looked after children before immediately returning to the workplace and not showing up in data as unemployed.

The official labour market data suggest this is changing. The number of women active in the labour market increased by 114,000 between September and December, 72,000 of whom are in employment and 42,000 who are classed as unemployed.