Job Crisis Sends Women Shopping
Men Seek Therapy; Women Spend
Since the beginning of the current crisis in August 2007, financial institutions worldwide have slashed almost 400,000 jobs and companies in other sectors are following suit and downsizing at an ever-increasing rate. Nobody's job feels safe but men and women are seeking different routes to self-help.
Used to their provider roles, men are so upset by job insecurity they refuse to buy boy toys and watches, preferring to spend on therapists and life coaches instead. Women, on the other hand, feel they must keep up their appearances at work and that a little shopping never hurt. All this is having odd consequences on the retail sector.
Threat to Male Identity
Gender marketing expert Diana Jaffe explained to Reuters' Katie Reid and Silke Koltrowitz on August 5 2009 that "uncertainty about jobs caused by the economic slump posed a threat to male identity, prompting men to cut back on spending. Women are cheering themselves up with a treat." Belinda Joy said on wow.com, " I myself am spending money I shouldn't because of stress over the economy and almost all the women I know are doing the same or eating like pigs.
There are, of course, no figures to indicate how much therapists are making from their male clients but Reuters reports that Swiss watchmakers report a slump of 26% in the first part of this year. Meanwhile, women's shopping habits are allowing Louis Vuitton and Hermes to hold their own. In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand salons and manufacturers of the hair products are doing well because women are going blond in record numbers.
Economy Has Lost 6.5 Million Jobs
There appears to be a striking difference in shopping habits between women in the United States and the UK. In the former spending is down and Wells Fargo's John Sylvia told Bloomberg News writer Shobhana Chandra, "consumers are looking at weak job growth and weak income growth and the combination dictates subpar consumer spending over a period of years." Bloomberg suggests that the since December 2007 and that economists forecast the jobless rate will exceed 10% by 2010.
However, Gulf News reporters Kathryn Hopkins and Peter Collinson reported on July 3, 2009, that in the UK research by Post Office Financial Services says women's spending on clothes, gym memberships and holidays has recovered over the past six months and is now higher than before the credit crunch although, unfortunately, millions are quietly borrowing from relatives to maintain their spending, in what the report says is an attempt to uphold an image and avoid redundancy.
Women are losing their jobs at twice the rate of men in the UK and Times Online's Isabel Oakeshott reports that a group of senior women ministers have warned the government that the situation may tarnish its stance on equal rights.
Speaking to Gulf News, Professor John Philpott chief economist of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development disagrees and refers to the ongoing situation as a 'man-cession' saying that the redundancy rate for men has more than doubled. The number of men unemployed has increased by 45 percent, the number of women unemployed by a quarter."
Women are the Family Breadwinners
His findings are more in line with those in Canada and the United States where, increasingly, women are the family breadwinners because their men are being laid off in the manufacturing sector. Women on Women (wow.com) reports that a Boston Consulting Group study of 12,000 women in 21 nations indicates that many are overworked and overextended and want more time to manage their lives.
Thus, shopping for something nice helps, especially as many feel low interest rates make saving pointless. How will it play out? Most likely, women's shopping habits will help end the recession.
Men Aren't Buying Watches like this
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Business & Finance
Latest Articles