WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE… OR LACK OF THEM!
Childcare as an impediment to women!
In the era of pandemic economic data, it is February 2020 that is the date of demarcation. Economic trends that existed before that date were likely interrupted after that month because of the spread of the virus and the social distancing strategies used to combat it after that month. So, February 2020 is a watershed moment for all US Economic Data, but maybe the labour market figures are more tied to that moment in time than most others. As such, it is usually notable when some aspect of the labour market regains the ground lost between its trough and February 2020. The Establishment Survey’s Nonfarm Payroll data is a much smoother data series than is the Household Survey’s Employed series. Additionally, it is true that the Nonfarm Payroll series made a new record high in February 2020 and that was not the case for the Employed data series. Regardless, I will be talking about the Household data, because it also breaks down the data by sex and therein lies a key distinction of the labour market in recent times.
Last autumn, the number of Employed people in the US finally surpassed the total as of February 2020. But the total number obscures important underlying details. The number of employed men surpassed the February 2020 total fourteen months ago in February 2022, but the number of women employed in the US only regained the lost ground in February 2023. The difference in the employment progress between men and women over the last three years is stark, in particular when compared to the historical record of the last three-quarters of a century.
As of March 2023, there were 160,892,000 employed people, that is up 2.143 million from the level of February 2020. Of that total increase, only 116k are women, while 2.027 million of the increase are men. As of March, there were 75,115,000 employed women and 85,776,000 employed men. The percentage of the workforce that is women fell from 47.2% three years ago, down to 46.7%. That is in contrast to a long-standing trend and as such this development deserves attention because if it does not stop it will likely have ramifications for the workforce in particular and society in general.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
In January 1948, when the Household Survey began keeping track of employed people, 72% of the group were men and only 28.1% were women. However, from that point forward the gap narrowed significantly to the end of the Twentieth Century; the rate of change has been slower since 2000, but nonetheless, the trend was ongoing until the pandemic. By January 2000, the percentage of the workforce that was women rose to 46.4%. Sixty per cent of the increase in the number of employed from the start date of the employed series to January 2000 were women. The number of employed women went from 16,325,000 in 1948 to 63,402,000 at the start of 2000; a rise of 47 million. During that same time, the number of employed men rose 31.4 million, up to 73.2 million.
One way to observe the shift in the sex of employed people is to look at the Labour Force Participation Rates for men and women. The men’s rate went from about 87% in 1948 down below 70% in the last decade. However, women participated in an ever- increasing rate from 1948 until the turn of the century, up from 32% to over 60% during that time.
Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate – Men, starting in 1948
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate – Women, starting in 1948
…FEBRUARY 2020 THAT IS THE DATE OF DEMARCATION.
23 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | Q2 Edition 2023
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