Romney Misleads With Women Jobs Stat

As part of his recent bid to appeal to women, Mitt Romney deployed what he called an "amazing statistic," saying that "92.3% of all the jobs lost during the Obama years have been lost by women." If that made your eyebrows climb your forehead, you're not alone. The AP's fact checkers looked into the statement, and found that while it's technically true, it's also truly misleading.

The recession began 13 months before Obama took office, and it initially hit men disproportionately hard. Male-dominated industries like construction and manufacturing are often hit first in recessions, and that was especially true this time. When Obama took office, women-dominated industries were catching up, and the number of unemployed women grew by 858,000 after January 2009—the basis of Romney's stat. But overall, men have lost 3.4 million jobs during the recession, to 1.8 million for women—which is why some economists have dubbed it the "man-cession." CNN also notes that women began losing jobs in March 2008, well before Obama's inauguration. (More Mitt Romney stories.)