When the restaurant management field dried up on him after 25 years, Steve Moore took a chance on a whole new field: selling cars. (It helped that people had told him for years that he'd be good at it.)
When Meaghan Kenagy felt unsatisfied in her marketing job, she quit to pursue dual master's degrees in business and public administration at Kennesaw State University.
Their stories mirror a national pattern. With jobs still scarce, men are filling about two-thirds of the available positions, according to recent analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In many cases, they're taking a step sideways or even a step down to land those jobs, economists say.
More women, meanwhile, are making a temporary exit from the labor market, returning to school to sharpen their skills.
"The growth in enrollment has been much faster for women than men, which helps explain some of their declines in the labor force," said Marisa Di Natale, director of economic research for Moody's Analytics.
Men's recent job gains represent a sharp turnaround: In the early days of the recession, they lost more jobs than women as male-dominated fields such as construction and manufacturing took a dive. Now, some of those jobs are beginning to reappear, at least on the national scene. But the public sector, a strong employer of women, is cutting back on jobs as federal stimulus money dries up and tax revenues shrink.
The picture in Georgia is less clear, and several economists said they doubt that men are faring as well here. The recession hit Georgia especially hard, choking the local economic engines of banking and real estate development, so the state has been slower to recover. Unlike many of the major metropolitan areas around the country, metro Atlanta saw more job losses than gains in the past year.
Jeff Humphreys, director of economic forecasting at the University of Georgia, said some sectors dominated by men, including manufacturing, are showing modest job growth in the state. Others, such as construction, have continued to slide.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide figures on hiring at the state level by gender, making it difficult to judge whether men or women have any advantage in hiring, said Chris Cunningham, an Atlanta-based statistician for the agency.
The most recent unemployment figures for Georgia that are analyzed by gender, a monthly average for 2010, show men still in the teeth of the downturn. At that point, the unemployment rate for men was 11.7 percent, up from 10.3 percent in 2009. The 2010 unemployment rate for women was 9.5, up from 9.2.
"So far this year, Georgia’s economy has contradicted the U.S. economy," Cunningham said. "The U.S. has been adding jobs on a year-to-year basis. We have not."
In one respect, Georgia does align with the national trend. Both men and women are going to college in greater numbers, but women have outpaced men, according to figures from the University System of Georgia. Between 2008 and 2011, enrollment increased among women by more than 19,000 and among men by fewer than 16,000.
Turning to the national picture, 1.12 million men obtained jobs in the 12 months that ended in December, compared to 548,000 women. Among the most striking findings: Retailers added 222,900 men versus about 37,000 women; manufacturers hired 251,000 men and cut 33,000 women.
Humphreys sees signs that similar trends may be on Georgia's horizon. The state saw an increase in job creation in November, and he forecasts that more jobs will arrive this year in the private sector, with losses coming in the public sector, a scenario that could favor men.
Moore, a Woodstock resident and 51-year-old husband and father of three, had worked in restaurants since he started at Burger King at age 14. He had worked his way up over the years through bartending and cooking to managing major chain restaurants. But he got laid off and couldn't find another similar position.
"The economy just flooded the marketplace with resumes," he said.
So he decided to switch fields. "I tweaked my resume and focused on my people skills." he said. It worked: He landed a job at a Marietta Mazda dealership in 2010. Managers there, who note that they hire women as well as men, said they saw great potential in Moore. In fact, he has become a top salesman in the state.
Kenagy, 38, was running a marathon when she decided she had to leave her job and go back to school. Her goal is to work in a nonprofit or fundraising organization. She's lucky enough to have a fiance with a good job, who is supportive of her career goals.
"I'm not duty bound to be the breadwinner," said Kenagy, of Decatur. For her, a job "has got to be something I believe in."
Having a partner who is employed makes it easier for any worker -- male or female -- to take time out for further schooling. But Humphreys said that in today's economy, particularly in Georgia, many employees see few other viable choices.
"People see that they better invest in education and training if they want to get a job again," he said.
That's the path taken by Marsia Malone of Lawrenceville. The mother of two was laid off in June from her job as a college finance adviser. Rather than trudge through a job market with few prospects, she decided it was time to pursue a college diploma.
"I'm hoping that when I walk across that stage," she said, "I can compete at a higher level because I'll have a lot of experience and a degree."
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