During December, all of the 140,000 jobs lost to Americans were held by women. Let that number sink in – Every. Single. Job. 100 percent. And for women of color, the impact was even greater.
That statistic was astonishing to me, so I reached out to Claire Ewing-Nelson of the National Woman’s Law Center to ask her how this could be. “It’s actually much worse than it appears,” she told me. “Technically, women lost 111 percent of the jobs in December. Women lost 156,000 jobs while men gained 16,000.”
Women are clearly bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 crisis, with 275,000 additional women leaving the workforce last month, compared to 71,000 men. Aside from the women who are leaving the workforce, many others feel like they are hanging on to their career by a thread – all while trying to juggle caring for elderly parents, supervising virtual school, and keeping up with the changing and conflicting guidance on a global pandemic that is out of control.
We need to get women back to work. Now. And I’m here to help.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of women about their job searches and work-life struggles for my book RINGMASTER: Work, Life, Keeping it All Together. I am also a mom quarantining with three teenage boys and recently made a big job change during Covid-19 that included virtual networking, interviewing over Zoom, and evaluating opportunities without stepping foot in my future office.
And now I’m teaming up with the Know Your Value team’s of A-list roster of experts to launch REBOOT Camp, a series featuring women from all walks of life who have lost their jobs and are struggling with their employment search amid uncertain times. We will follow their journeys, their highs, and their lows. We’ll team them up with experts, and these brave women will share their stories with you, with the hope their experience will help others looking to reboot their careers as well.
“Millions of women are struggling to hang on to or have lost their jobs,” Know Your Value founder and “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski told me. “People have lost their power and their voice during these trying times. In REBOOT Camp, we will show real-life examples of how grit, resilience, and sometimes even having to start over, help get women back to work.”
Former NBC financial editor Jean Chatzky will dole out job loss financial advice. Resume and LinkedIn expert Lynda Spiegel will share insider tips on how to get your resume noticed in a crowded field. Career and Executive Coach Carroll Welch will guide us through the tricky process of how to pivot industries, particularly those dominated by women that have taken a huge hit, like hospitality and fundraising. We will dive into the peculiarities of finding a job during Covid-19, like how to network virtually and interview over Zoom. We’ll evaluate job opportunities for their employee-friendliness to things like scheduling workdays around virtual school hours.
And if you have lost your job due to Covid-19 and would like help to overcome your job search hurdles, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at KYVREBOOT@gmail.com.
When we work together, we can achieve more. Let’s get women back to work.
Jennifer Folsom