The US recession   has opened up the biggest gap between male and female unemployment rates since records began in 1948, as men bear the blow of the economy's decline.   Men have lost almost 80% of the 5.1 million jobs since the recession started, pushing the male unemployment rate to 8.8%. The female jobless rate has hit 7%.   This is a dramatic change of the trend over the past few years, where the rates of male and female unemployment barely differed, at about 5%. It also means that women could soon overtake men as the majority of the prefix = st1 /USlabour force.   Men have been badly hurt because they dominate those industries that have been affected: 9 in every 10 construction workers are male, as are 7 in every 10 manufacturing workers. These two sectors   alone have lost almost 2.5 million jobs. Women, in contrast, tend to hold more stable jobs and make up 75% of the most unaffected sectors of all: education and healthcare.   "It protects them a little bit and softens the blow," said Francine Blau, a labour market economist at CornellUniversity. "I think we are going to see this pattern until the recovery."   The widening gap between male and female joblessness means many US families are totally reliant on the income the woman brings in. Since women earn on average 20% less than men, that is putting extra stress on many households. Who would suffer most in the USrecession?
Hospital staff. Assistant professors. Building workers. Taxi drivers.