Jul. 5--More men are losing their jobs than women, economic reports indicate, and the results could be reshaping more than the jobless rate.

Oklahomans aren't losing jobs equally. In May, there were more than 22,000 claims for initial unemployment benefits filed; twice as many men filed for the benefit as women, said Lynn Gray, chief economist for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

Nearly 74 percent of women in the United States with children between 6 and 17 work, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers from 2008, but as the dynamic swings in the recession, many think this number will continue to increase.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission in May released seasonally adjusted employment records.

Oklahoma's unemployment increased 0.1 percent from April numbers to 6.3 percent. The national rate for the same month was 9.4 percent.

Gray said industries that tend to be more sensitive to changes in the business cycle typically employ more men.

Production jobs such as mining and logging, construction and manufacturing, are traditionally male driven.

Manufacturing lost 16,000 jobs in May, according to commission reports. From May 2008 to May 2009, mining and logging jobs decreased more than 13 percent and manufacturing jobs dropped nearly 11 percent.

Russell Evans, director of the Center for Applied Economic Research at Oklahoma State University, thinks Oklahoma has not peaked in unemployment.

"The pattern, at least in Oklahoma, was that our early job losses were in construction, energy and manufacturing, oil and gas extraction and other jobs that are fairly male dominated," he said.

Evans thinks things will even out, but not without an adjustment in the employment mix -- more service jobs, unconventional oil and gas recovery, possibly younger workers and even more women in the workplace.

"These things have a huge effect on habits and the psyche," Evans said. "We tend to hang on to and remember these things."

Taking the lead Sherry McGlone, 38, of Ponca City, said her husband Mark, 42, lost his job with ConocoPhillips in March. Since then, McGlone has become her family's source of income.

McGlone, a paralegal, has an associate's degree, and her husband has a bachelor's degree.

"No matter how much you plan things, you learn you just have to go with it. It's one thing at a time," she said. "We were definitely in the prime of our careers."

McGlone said her husband was always involved and very hands-on with their 11- and 14-year-old daughters, but since becoming unemployed he's had to become even more so.

"It's been a role reversal," McGlone said. "But it's bringing us closer. And I think as a society it will change how we do things."

Candace Austin, 28, of Oklahoma City, said her husband lost his job in January. With a 4-year-old son, medical bills and other household responsibilities that need attending to, her husband, Jamey, has taken on many of the household chores.

Grocery shopping, picking out their son's preschool, cooking and other house chores are now Jamey's responsibility, Austin said.

'These are things I would always handle when he was working full time," she said.

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