WASHINGTON, D.C. — About 120,000 people aged 20 and over joined the labor force in May, however those gains were entirely among men while women left the labor force last month, according to a National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) jobs analysis of monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That brings the total net number of women who have left the labor force so far this year to more than 300,000, NWLC found. 

“The numbers reflect the Trump administration’s pronatalist agenda to push women out of the workforce and return to a time of strict gender roles,” said Jasmine Tucker, vice president of research at NWLC. “The policies of this administration gave us an idea of what would happen, and now we’re seeing the consequences play out in the data.” 

In May, according to the BLS, 191,000 men aged 20 and over joined the labor force and 71,000 women aged 20 and over left the labor force.  

In addition:

• Over 1 in 4 unemployed women aged 16 and over have been looking for work for 6 months or longer (26.4%). 
• Many women are also underemployed. Over 1 in 10 women aged 16 and over (10.5%) who were working part-time in May were doing so for economic reasons, such as slack work or unfavorable business conditions. Rates were even higher for Black women aged 16 and over (14.8%) and Latinas aged 16 and over (16.7%) 

Please let me know if you’d like to speak to an expert on the impact that these losses have on women and their families, or receive additional topline data related to unemployment and industry changes, including by gender and race. 

###