Center's Monthly Enquirer Column: "Women Increase Workforce Role"

Full article: 

Women Increase Workforce Role

Recent concerns about employment and the economy have been exacerbated by a local unemployment rate over 10 percent. While everyone has felt the effects of the recession in some way, men and women likely have experienced the economic environment differently in terms of employment.

Women have traditionally been considered domestic providers and thus more likely to stay at home; although that pattern may be changing for a variety of reasons. For example, at the national level, nearly 73 percent of men within the civilian population over the age of 16 were active in the labor force, working or actively seeking work, compared with about 60 percent of women every year. Nationally, the proportion of the labor force without work but actively seeking, also known as the unemployment rate, for men and women was comparable in 2005 and 2006; however, in 2007 and 2008 women had a lower unemployment rate than men, suggesting that women were better able to find and keep a job.

The national picture suggests that overall women are less likely than men to be formally employed. Interestingly, those women who are looking for work may have greater success in finding and holding a job than men in recent years.

Data from the Census Bureau for 2005 through 2008 for the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky metropolitan area show that the age group 22 to 54 is the group for which men and women are most active in the labor force. Looking at this core group of people in Cincinnati's labor market some differences do emerge.

For example, locally, the gap in labor force participation rates between men and women has narrowed considerably and consistently, in the 25 to 29 and 35 to 44 age groups. In both age groups by 2008 the gap had narrowed to almost half what it was in 2005. Among workers aged 25 to 29, beginning in 2007, the proportion of women employed among those working or actively seeking work was between 4 to 5 percentage points higher than that of men.

The gap has also decreased for those in their early 30s; although this age group has the largest overall participation rate gap. This is not surprising as this age range coincides with women's prime child-bearing years, suggesting that women are still more likely to be providers in the home. The gap has also decreased slightly among individuals aged 45 to 54.

When looking beyond the core group, examining individuals approaching retirement in the age groups 55 through 64, the labor force participation rate gap has decreased consistently by nearly half between 2005 and 2008. While in the younger groups, the closing of the gap is due to growth in female labor force participation as male participation has remained relatively stable or even declined, among the older age groups, participation rates have grown for both men and women, but generally at a faster rate for women.

It seems that regionally, women in early adulthood are entering the labor force at a faster rate than men, and may have greater success in finding and keeping a job. Women may be more inclined to enter when young, particularly upon leaving college, and also as they wait to marry and are thus self-supporting. Alternatively, women may be entering formal employment at greater rates out of economic necessity, a reality of a recession in the most recent period. This may be particularly true for the older age groups, as their retirement funds diminished in a rapidly declining financial market. Not surprisingly, women in the prime child-bearing age group have lower rates of participation, but the gap has narrowed since 2005.

Regardless of the reasons, women are becoming an increasingly important part of our regional work force.

Jennifer Pitzer is research associate at the Economics Center for Education & Research, College of Business, University of Cincinnati.