Unemployment stats show good news -- unless you a man

Article here. Excerpt:

'One thing the rates don’t reflect is the disproportionate number of men who are receiving unemployment insurance.

“If you look, 80 percent receiving unemployment insurance payments are male, whereas they are just about 50 percent of the population,” he said. “The issue is that the big hits in jobs have been in construction and manufacturing that are heavily male and the gains have been in health care and education that are more female.

“People are using the term ‘mancession,’ ” he said.

Nationally, first-time claims for unemployment fell 21,000 to 434,000, the third straight decline. The report boosted early Wall Street trading that actually ended the day slightly lower.

An Associated Press survey of leading economists out this week said there was an expectation that the national unemployment rate at 9.6 percent will lower to about 9 percent by the end of the year. Many sources expect that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce next week the Fed’s plans to purchase Treasury bonds to try to further lower interest rates.'