Are We in A Mancession?

Those of you who work with the construction and manufacturing sects may want to take note – one in five working-age American men do not have a job. And though we don’t like to generalize here at Accounting Tomorrow, we will admit, men are more likely to work in those industries.

According to an article by Shahien Nasiripour, only 80.3 percent of men age 25 to 54 had jobs in December – the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting that data in 1948 – at which point the figure was 94.4 percent. When the recession began in December 2007, less than 13 percent of men in this age bracket were out of work.

The percentage of women age 25 to 54 who have work is also down, but not as dramatically, according to Nasiripour. Sixty-one percent of those women are employed, about the same as 1998. Women dominate the fields of education, health services and government. Growth is predicted for the health care and government sectors because of the aging population and recently-enacted stimulus programs to boost the economy.

The question is – as these niches fall and prosper due to the economy, how will that affect your clients and your practice? And, what are you doing to prepare for a boom in business or to get paid by your struggling clients?