Participation rates here show a 9 percentage point jump for women in the time to 60.1 per cent, compared with a 6.7 per cent rise among men, albeit from a higher starting point.
Women’s return to the labour market dovetails with another recent prediction that hasn’t stuck. While many economists thought the pandemic would lead to lots of boomers sliding into early retirement, the opposite is happening. The millions of people in their fifties and sixties who left jobs are now coming back into work, led by women.Inflation is clearly one reason for this, but a lack of adequate retirement savings – even with asset prices still relatively high – is another. Only 34.
That said, they also have new advantages. More flexible post-pandemic work arrangements are a boon for many women, particularly working mothers . What’s more, the Biden White House has made getting more women and people of colour into the labour market a strategic priority, linking infrastructure spending and corporate subsidies for things such as clean energy and semiconductors to efforts to create a more diverse workforce.
While women are moving into traditionally male work, the trend is not going the other way. There’s a body of social science showing that while women will take manufacturing jobs for higher wages, men – particularly white men – are less likely to move into, say, nursing, even if they would earn more there than in manual labour.