Slow economy causes job decline for women

BOSTON — Following six consecutive boom years, job growth for women declined and the unemployment rate increased in 1989, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.

Women last year represented just more than one-third of the total work force increase in New England, their growth rate of 0.9 percent falling well below the 2.2 percent average of the preceding six years, the report said Sunday.

“There has been a slowdown in the economy in New England,” said Anthony J. Ferrara, the labor department’s regional commissioner. “(It) is now affecting industries that women are typically working in — retail, trade, finance and other services.”

Over the last six years, women had accounted for nearly three-quarters of the labor force increase in New England. But despite the leveling off, the region’s female labor force reached an all-time high of 3,240,000 in 1989 with the addition of 30,000 workers, the department said.

The growth rate for working women nationwide rose by 2.4 percent in 1989 while the rate for men was 1.5 percent in New England.

Because of the slowdown, the study said, the total number of women employed regionally also moderated. Women’s share of total employment in New England fell slightly to 46.4 percent in 1989, still slightly above the average national participation rate of 45.2 percent.

“New England tends to have a higher (female) participation rate than the national average because of their educational attainments,” Ferrara said. “People that have expended time, energy and money on education normally do not drop out of the labor force.”

Despite the decade’s improved job opportunities, women still face a substantial earnings gap.

Women earned only 70.1 percent of men’s median weekly salary in 1989, which was an improvement over the gap of 62.4 percent in 1979 but slightly lower than the 70.2 percent gap registered in 1988.

According to the labor department study, New England’s black women had the highest rate of labor force participation. They had a rate of 66.6 percent compared with 60.7 percent for white women and 57.2 percent for Hispanic women.

Minority women also recorded the greatest increase in participation, with black women’s representation growing by 3.3 percent and Hispanic women’s participation increasing by 2.8. The rate for white women inched up only 0.5 percent of a percentage point in 1989, the survey said.

Black women, who accounted for 51.3 percent of the region’s total black employment in 1988, accounted for 54.6 percent in 1989. Women increased their share of Hispanic employment in the Northeast from 44.8 percent to 47.4 percent during the same period.

Meanwhile, white women’s total regional employment dropped 0.2 to make up 46.2 percent of the total white employment in 1989.