The labor market is resurging — but millions of women are still recovering from the “she-cession”

Let this sink in… After two years of a pandemic, women have still not fully recovered from the labor market pain of 2020. While the US added a record 6.4M jobs last year, and the overall unemployment rate is down to 4%, men have dominated new hirings. Of the jobs gained in January, women filled 40%. This morning’s jobs report will offer fresh insight into how women are rebounding from the she-cession.

• In the US: 2.5M+ women dropped out of the labor force between February 2020 and January 2021, versus 1.8M men. That’s unusual, because men typically fare worse during recessions.
• Globally: 64M+ women lost their jobs in 2020, which resulted in $800B in lost income.

Why women left… Women bore the brunt of childcare when schools closed, which hurt their careers, relationships, and well-being. Women are also overrepresented in jobs with some of the highest burnout rates, including high-contact industries like healthcare, education, and retail. Ultimately, many mothers were forced to decide between being primary caregivers or full-time employees. And while schools have reopened, there’s still a childcare crisis keeping women out of the resurgent labor market:

• 16K licensed childcare facilities permanently closed between December 2019 and March 2021, while childcare costs have increased by 41% since the pandemic began.
• American childcare workers — 95% of whom are women — earn just $12/hr on average, which makes recruitment and retention challenging.