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The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly jobs report shows that the economy gained 49,000 net jobs in January. All of the jobs gained were women’s jobs, with women gaining 87,000 jobs and men losing 38,000. Even with January’s gains, more than 2 in 5 (44.2%) of the over 22.3 million jobs lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis have not returned. In January, 275,000 women left the labor force, meaning they are no longer working or looking for work. The total number of women who have left the labor force since the start of the pandemic reached over 2.3 million last month, leaving women’s labor force participation rate – the percent of adult women who are either working or looking for work – at 57.0%. Before the pandemic, women’s labor force participation rate had not been this low since 1988. By comparison, nearly 1.8 million men have left the labor force since February 2020.
Note: NWLC’s monthly jobs day analyses are generally not updated after publication and are provided for archival purposes. Please visit our main jobs day page for the most up-to-date analyses.