During the first year of the Great Recession (1/08 – 1/09), men lost almost 3.3 million jobs while women lost nearly 1.2 million. Since then, women have lost another 680K jobs and men just 60K. This is because many men work in manufacturing and construction, industries that were hit hard and early, while women tend to work in government, healthcare and education, where layoffs came later and were less dramatic.