August 12, 2025
It’s become harder for women, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, to thrive in this job market.
Professor at the University of Kansas and former principal economist at the Census Bureau, Misty Heggeness, commenting on U.S. data indicating that working moms with young children have left the workforce in large numbers since January.
Why It Matters: Between January and June, the number of working moms ages 25 to 44 with young children decreased – reaching its lowest level in more than three years. Reasons vary by family, but factors likely include employers shifting from remote or hybrid schedules to in-person work, federal layoffs and women choosing to leave the workforce as the economy cools.
Bottom Line: “This year’s pullback among mothers is part of a broader shift: Some 212,000 women over 20 have stopped working or applying for jobs since January, with particularly pronounced drops for Black women and those ages 25 to 34, Labor Department data shows. And while the unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, remains low, the share of women in the workforce has fallen since January.” (The Washington Post)
Something To Consider: “The U.S. is the only advanced economy that’s had declining female labor force participation in the last 20 years, and a lot of that is because of lack of social safety net and caregiving supports,” said the chief economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Kate Bahn.
Learn More:
- Mothers are leaving the workforce, erasing pandemic gains (WaPo Gift Link)
Image Credit: Nick Morrison on Unsplash
by Emily Hooker, based in Texas
