Report: more men unemployed than women

A new report confirms that male workers in Minnesota are being hit harder by the current recession than women. The state Department of Employment and Economic Development says the unemployment rate for Minnesota men jumped from 5.9 percent in March of 2008, to 10.9 percent in March of this year.

At the same time, the unemployment rate for women ticked up from 4.7 to just 5 percent. Steve Hine, the research director at the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), said much of this can be traced to the hard-hit housing construction and manufacturing sectors. Hine says nearly 90-percent of construction jobs are held by men.

"On the other side of the coin, some of the areas that have been doing very well like health care, are predominantly female oriented jobs, 80% of the jobs in the health care industry are held by women," Hine said.

Hine says not only are female workers in Minnesota faring better in the current recession than their male counterparts, the state unemployment rate for female workers is below national rates for women.