The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly jobs report shows job gains continued to slow in October, with the economy adding back only 638,000 jobs, compared to nearly 672,000 added back in September. Even with these gains, only about half (54.5%) of the nearly 22.2 million jobs lost in March and April due to the COVID-19 crisis have returned. Women gained only 43.9% of the jobs added to the economy in October, while making up about half (49.7%) of the workforce. In October, 480,000 women ages 20 and over re-entered the labor force (meaning they are either working or looking for work), but there were still nearly 2.2 million fewer women in the labor force in October than there were in February, before the pandemic.

Note: NWLC’s monthly jobs day analyses are generally not updated after publication and are provided for archival purposes. Please visit our main jobs day page for the most up-to-date analyses.