Women close work gap with men
August 17, 2017 by Business Record Staff
More women are joining the workforce as more men are staying away, leaving the smallest gap in “participation rate” since records began in 1948, Bloomberg reported.
The share of 25- to 54-year-old women either employed or seeking employment hit a seven-year high in July. The 0.3 percentage point increase for women left the gap between the sexes at 13.2 points.
Bloomberg reported that as men and women came back into the workforce in the aftermath of the Great Recession, young prime-age women particularly have been looking for work or have found jobs.
But men have been leaving the workforce, part of the reason the federal government has looked to boost coal mining and manufacturing, two areas that have been dominated by men.
People have been less willing to move for work. Mobility is at the lowest since the data recording started in 1948.
The less that people enter the workforce, the harder it is to push up the economic growth rate.