The Covid pandemic has had a profound impact on the workforce, with recent research from Simon Fraser University highlighting how many people have left the workforce.  The study reveals that around 350,000 Canadian women have lost their job during Covid and have yet to return to work.  This has resulted in the biggest fall in female unemployment in the last 20 years.

The paper highlights that this has been a particular problem in industries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, such as low-wage occupations, in which women often make up over half of the workforce.

The researchers believe that a persistent gender pay gap combined with low wages has contributed to the exodus from the workforce and that the specific industries affected so heavily by Covid are only part of the story.

“When looking at the data, we can see that women lost more jobs than their male colleagues in the hardest-hit sectors, which tells us there are more factors at play than just the impacts of the pandemic,” they explain. “We have to acknowledge that other factors such as gender norms around unpaid care and wage discrimination have played a role in exacerbating pre-existing gender inequalities over the past year.”

Lost jobs

The research found that women lost a disproportionate amount of jobs in pretty much every industry except health and social care.  By far the worst affected was retail, where despite women making up around half of the workforce, they resulted in 91% of the jobs lost.

“Prior to March 2020, women comprised 48 percent of the workforce, and yet they sustained 58 percent of lockdown related job losses during the first two months of the pandemic,” the researchers say. “Unfortunately, a year later and the burden continues to fall increasingly on women, which is why more needs to be done to address this disparity and prevent additional economic damage.”

The researchers believe that this could have long-term implications, especially for any chance of an equitable economic recovery.  To counter this, they urge policymakers to introduce targeted activity, including increased training for women in those hard-hit sectors, greater investment in childcare and parental leave, and a strengthening of the Pay Equity Act.