Men are losing ground in the labor market. Here's why

Left to right, Everette Kerry of Life Alert speaks with Maximilian Kegley-Oyola and Dylan Flowers about job opportunities during the Mega JobNewsUSA South Florida Job Fair at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, Sept. 25, 2026.Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesFriday's weaker-than-expected jobs report may feel especially lousy for men.Women outnumbered men in the workforce for eight straight months as of September, according to an analysis of government data by Indeed. That's the longest stretch since 2010, the job search platform found."Back then, the gap emerged because men were losing jobs," said Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed. "This time, it's because women are gaining them."Gender differencesAcross the board, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that U.S. payrolls grew by 29,000 jobs on net in September, lower than economists consensus forecast for an increase of 84,000.Men represented slightly over half of net job growth in September, according to a CNBC analysis of Friday's BLS data. A month prior, men represented just 2% of payroll growth.Despite the monthly increase, the seasonally adjusted number of employed men in the U.S. was lower by about 1.2 million in Septe...