In charts: How women鈥檚 employment hit a record high
The percentage of working women in the United States hit a record high in 2023聽鈥� defying expectations of a slow post-pandemic recovery.
The percentage of working women in the United States hit a record high in 2023聽鈥� defying expectations of a slow post-pandemic recovery.
Women in the United States workforce hit a milestone in 2023, when the percentage of prime-age working women reached 75.3% 鈥撀燼n all-time high. The main driver of this increase: college-educated women with young children.
鈥淭his is really about what happens when a woman who is working has their first child,鈥� and if they drop out of the workforce and for how long, says Alexander Arnon, an analyst with the University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 Penn Wharton Budget Model who led a study of the data.聽
Women have outnumbered men in earning college degrees since the early 1980s. Yet the employment rate for women in the 25-to-54 age range still lagged behind that for men 鈥� and many economists expected them to have a slow post-pandemic return to work.
So the recent trend is significant, as college-educated women with young children lead the way in employment growth.
Women still face employment challenges.聽The 鈥渃hild penalty鈥� 鈥� the long-term effects of having children on women鈥檚 careers 鈥� persists.聽In 2022, men鈥檚 earnings聽averaged 18%聽more than women鈥檚, a gap that shrank only 2 percentage points in 20 years. And women are聽twice as likely as men聽to hold part-time jobs, which often lack benefits and security. But part-time work is not driving the upward-trending employment rate, which is concentrated around relatively higher-paying professional jobs.
The increase in women鈥檚 employment is tied to workplace changes like telecommuting that accelerated during the pandemic, although the trend predates COVID-19. And it鈥檚 largely independent of economic cycles, which was a surprise to researchers, who note the broader economy has affected other subsets of working women. The consistent upward trend also defies experts鈥� expectations that women would bear a disproportionate share of the pandemic鈥檚 economic cost. In fact, the rate of prime-age working women recovered faster than men鈥檚.聽
The rate of working mothers is expected to keep climbing. The impact of that shift is widely debated: How will it affect the long-term labor supply? Or men and families?聽
On whether it鈥檚 good for the economy, Mr. Arnon says there鈥檚 no question. 鈥淚f you think that having more productive capacity is a positive ... this is a positive for the U.S. economy.鈥澛�