(wsj) he current recession is hitting workers in just about every industry, but men are taking a much bigger hit than women. The 2.5 percentage-point gap between men's unemployment rate of 10.5% in May and women's 8% rate is the highest it's ever been since records were kept in 1948. "The gap between female and male unemployment has never been as large as it is now," said Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist with Moody's Economy.com. It's not hard to see why. Two male-dominated industries - construction and manufacturing - account for half of the 6 million jobs lost since the recession started in December 2007 and both industries started shedding jobs before that.

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