America's women are still on the sidelines, even as the jobs recovery picks up steam
The US jobs recovery finally picked up steam again in October, but not everyone is benefiting: Many women who were forced to drop out of the labor force during the pandemic are still on the sidelines.
How to get them back could be a question on lawmakers' minds for years to come.
As of October, the labor force participation rate for women was still nearly 2 percentage points below its pre-pandemic level. The number of women not in the labor force was nearly 3 million higher than before the pandemic.
That's not only bad news for America's women who want to work but can't, it's also bad for the economy, which would be stronger if everyone who wants a job can participate in it as a worker.
Where the pandemic has left working women
The Covid recession was an anomaly in that more women than men lost their jobs. This was partly because more women tend to work in the kinds of service-sector positions that disappeared by the millions during the height of the pandemic. Women also made up the majority of frontline workers.
"Additionally, women took on the majority of caring responsibilities, for older relatives and children alike," noted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in Monday's opening remarks at the Fed's Gender and the Economy Conference.
"As schools closed and childcare services shuttered during the worst of the pandemic, that added responsibility and stress made working more difficult for some and took many away from their jobs," Powell added.
Last year, a Fed survey showed that the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted childcare or school for nearly 70% of US parents, and 25% of mothers reported they worked less or didn't work at all as a result.
In September last year, hundreds of thousands of women dropped out of the workforce, which was attributed to their children's remote schooling needs.
Economists were hopeful there would be a reversal of the trend this September as many schools reopened and vaccinations helped the nation return to a modicum of normalcy. But there was no rush of women back into the job market this fall.
How will we get the women back?
While many workers on the sidelines are there because of care responsibilities, the pandemic has also led many people to rethink their job choices. The record-high quits rate in August was proof of that.
Public policy initiatives like care subsidies or universal pre-K could help alleviate the care burden and allow women to return to work while the tight labor market puts workers at an advantage. But the reasons keeping people out of the workforce are likely more complex than that.
"There just seem to be a lot of factors that are affecting people's employment and labor force decisions now," said Stephanie Aaronson, vice president and director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution.
Workers don't want to go back to bad jobs, Aaronson noted. Plus, she added, people's labor decisions tend to be persistent once made. And some women who may have thought that they would return to work after having a child could make a different decision in light of the pandemic.
"History shows us that big events can change people's behavior," she added, pointing to the shift in labor force participation after World War II. "It could be that we're witnessing substantial changes in people's relationship with work."
It remains to be seen how long it will take America to get it's female workforce back to its pre-pandemic size, but it could take years.
"It will be a slow recovery for labor force participation," Aaronson said.
即使就业复苏加速，美国女性仍处于观望状态
美国就业复苏终于在 10 月份再次回暖，但并非所有人都受益：许多在大流行期间被迫退出劳动力市场的女性仍处于观望状态。
如何让他们回来可能是未来几年立法者心中的一个问题。
截至 10 月，女性劳动力参与率仍比大流行前水平低近 2 个百分点。非劳动力妇女人数比大流行前增加了近 300 万。
这不仅对想工作但不能工作的美国女性来说是个坏消息，而且对经济也不利，如果每个想要工作的人都能以工人的身份参与其中，经济会更加强劲。
大流行使职业女性离开的地方
Covid 经济衰退是一个反常现象，因为失业的女性多于男性。这部分是因为更多的女性倾向于从事在大流行最严重时期消失了数百万的服务部门职位。女性也占一线工人的大多数。
美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔 (Jerome Powell) 周一在美联储性别与经济会议上的开幕词中指出：“此外，女性承担了大部分照顾年长亲属和儿童的责任。”
鲍威尔补充说：“在大流行最严重的时期，学校关闭和托儿服务关闭，增加的责任和压力使一些人的工作变得更加困难，并使许多人失去工作。”
去年，美联储的一项调查显示，Covid-19 大流行中断了近 70% 的美国父母的托儿服务或学校，25% 的母亲报告说他们工作时间减少或根本没有工作。
去年 9 月，数十万妇女退出劳动力市场，原因是她们的孩子需要远程上学。
经济学家希望今年 9 月这一趋势能够逆转，因为许多学校重新开学，疫苗接种帮助国家恢复了一点点正常。但今年秋天并没有女性重返就业市场的热潮。
我们将如何让女性回来？
虽然许多工人因为照顾责任而在场，但大流行也让许多人重新考虑他们的工作选择。 8 月份创纪录的离职率证明了这一点。
护理补贴或普及学前班等公共政策举措可以帮助减轻护理负担并让女性重返工作岗位，同时紧俏的劳动力市场使工人处于优势地位。但让人们退出劳动力市场的原因可能比这更复杂。
“现在似乎有很多因素正在影响人们的就业和劳动力决策，”布鲁金斯学会副总裁兼经济研究项目主任斯蒂芬妮亚伦森说。
Aaronson 指出，工人们不想回到糟糕的工作岗位。此外，她补充说，人们的劳动决定一旦做出就往往是持久的。考虑到大流行，一些可能认为生完孩子后会重返工作岗位的女性可能会做出不同的决定。
“历史告诉我们，重大事件可以改变人们的行为，”她补充说，并指出了二战后劳动力参与的转变。 “这可能是因为我们正在目睹人们与工作的关系发生重大变化。”
美国需要多长时间才能让女性劳动力恢复到大流行前的规模还有待观察，但这可能需要数年时间。
“劳动力参与率将缓慢复苏，”亚伦森说。
