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Decoding Whether Pink Collar Jobs are Better for Men Without College Degree

by Kathy Jones on Aug 16 2014 11:00 PM

 Decoding Whether Pink Collar Jobs are Better for Men Without College Degree
Researchers led by University of Akron’s Janette Dill hope to find out whether a man without a four-year college degree should seek out a lower-paying but steadier employment in a female-dominated field or try his luck in landing a well-paying, but insecure job, in traditionally male fields such as manufacturing or construction.
"It's such a hard labor market if you don't have a college degree," Dill says. "You're just really shut out from jobs that pay a decent wage."

While manufacturing has been declining for decades and construction is highly cyclical, healthcare continues its steady rise. The healthcare and social assistance sector will add 5 million jobs from 2012 to 2022, accounting for nearly one-third of all job growth, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects.

Dill and sociology professors Kim Price-Glynn, of the University of Connecticut, and Carter Rakovski, of California State University-Fullerton, analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data to compare how low-skill men in male-dominated occupations fared in comparison with men in "frontline" healthcare jobs that do not require a four-year degree and are dominated by women (nursing assistants, administrative workers, and others).

They found that although male frontline healthcare workers earned less than male blue-collar workers, the blue-collar workers were more likely to be laid off.

"It's sort of a trade-off," Dill says. "You can either go into manufacturing and make higher wages, but you may lose your job, or you can go into healthcare and have a higher degree of job stability."

The researchers found no evidence that men were leaving male-dominated occupations for frontline healthcare jobs. The lower pay, along with the stigma men may feel doing "women's work," are among the reasons.

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However, frontline allied healthcare jobs — surgical technicians and the like, which require a two-year degree or equivalent, involve more technical expertise, and pay more than traditionally female-dominated healthcare jobs — are a different story.

"We see a high rate of growth of men going into these occupations," Dill says.

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In 2001, men made up 17 percent of frontline allied healthcare workers. By the end of the decade, it was 26 percent.

The authors raise the possibility that for men without a four-year college degree, frontline allied healthcare jobs may be the ticket to a stable middle-class lifestyle as they pay better and are more stable than blue collar work.



Source-Eurekalert


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