Women's Career Advancement

Abstract

Unemployment rates improved for women in 2021, but women’s job gains still lag those of men since the start of the pandemic. Nearly one million women rejoined the labor force in 2021 with the unemployment rate for Latina women improving the most from 9.1% in December 2020 to 4.8% in February 2022. Despite these job gains, women are down 1.4 million net jobs and represent more than two in three (68.5%) net job losers since February 2020. Notably, in February 2022, Black women were the only group to see an increase in unemployment, were most likely to have been out of work for 6 months or longer, and left the labor force in the largest numbers compared to January 2022.