Economic Progress Stalls for Women

Statement from Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR): Jobs data show substantially slowed growth since September. For the first time in the COVID-19 recession, women have gained fewer jobs than men. This is significant because women have lost more jobs than men overall (X and Y respectively) and would need to gain a larger percentage of jobs during the recovery in order for both men and women to reach previous employment levels.

Progress Slows: There were 661,000 non-farm payroll positions added since September, compared with 1.4 million in the previous reporting period. This is far lower than the Dow Jones' estimate of 800,000.
Impact on Women: Women gained 286,000 jobs, a mere 43.3% of the jobs increase, compared with 873,000 jobs gained in August.
Race and Unemployment: Black and Hispanic workers continue to experience disproportionately high levels of unemployment, with Hispanic women experiencing the only increase in unemployment, from 10.5% in August to 11.0% in September.

Data show that women continue to be impacted more strongly than men by the COVID recession; without concerted public policy efforts, these trends threaten to further worsen racial and gender inequity.

﻿Economic Progress Stalls for Women

Economic Progress Stalls for Women