1

Women in the Labor Force: 

A Databook 

 

Introduction 

 The past several decades have been marked by 

notable changes in women’s labor force activities. 

Since the 1970s, women’s labor force participation has 

risen substantially, particularly among women with 

children, and a larger share of women work full time 

and year round than ever before. In addition, women 

have increasingly attained higher levels of education: 

among women ages 25 to 64 who are in the labor force, 

the proportion with a college degree more than tripled 

from 1970 to 2007. Women’s earnings as a proportion 

of men’s also have grown over time. In 1979, women 

working full time earned 62 percent of what men did; in 

2007, women’s earnings were 80 percent of men’s. 

 This report presents historical and current labor force 

and earnings data for women and men from the Current 

Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a national 

monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households 

conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unless otherwise noted, 

data are annual averages from the CPS. Users should 

note that the comparisons of earnings in this report are 

on a broad level and do not control for many factors that 

can be significant in explaining earnings differences. 

For a detailed description of the source of the data and 

an explanation of concepts and definitions used, see the 

Technical Note at the end of this report. 

Highlights 

• In 2007, 59 percent of women were in the labor 

force, and this share has been quite stable over the 

past few years. Women’s labor force participation 

rate peaked at 60 percent in 1999, following 

several decades in which women increasingly 

entered the labor market. (See tables 1 and 2.) 

• The unemployment rate for women was 4.5 

percent in 2007. Although higher than its most 

recent low of 4.1 percent in 2000, the 

unemployment rate for women in 2007 was 

relatively low by historical standards. Unemployment rates for women varied by race and 

Hispanic ethnicity in 2007. Asian women had the 

lowest rate (3.4 percent), followed by white (4.0 

percent), Hispanic (6.1 percent), and black (7.5 

percent) women. (See tables 1, 2, and 3.) 

• From March 1975 to March 2000, the labor force 

participation rate of mothers with children under 

age 18 rose from 47 percent to a peak of 73 

percent. (These data were collected in the March 

CPS.) By 2004, the rate for these mothers had 

receded to 71 percent, where it remained through 

2007. In general, mothers with older children (6 to 

17 years of age, none younger) are more likely to 

participate in the labor force than mothers with 

younger children (under 6 years of age), and 

unmarried mothers have higher participation rates 

than married mothers. In 2007, 76 percent of 

unmarried mothers were in the labor force, 

compared with 69 percent of married mothers. 

(See tables 6 and 7.) 

• The educational attainment of women in the labor 

force aged 25 to 64 rose substantially from 1970 to 

2007. Thirty-five percent of these women held 

college degrees in 2007, compared with 11 percent 

in 1970. Only 7 percent of women were high 

school dropouts in 2007, down from 34 percent in 

1970. (See table 9.) 

• In 2007, women accounted for about 51 percent of 

all persons employed in management, professional, 

and related occupations, somewhat more than their 

share of all employed workers (46 percent). The 

share of women in specific occupations within this 

broad category varied in 2007. For example, 8 

percent of engineering managers and 33 percent of 

lawyers were women. In contrast, 92 percent of 

registered nurses and 82 percent of social workers 

were women. (See table 11.) 

• Employed Asian women were more likely (47 

percent) to work in the higher paying management, 

professional, and related occupations in 2007 than 
2

were employed white (40 percent), black (31 

percent), or Hispanic (23 percent) women. 

Hispanic women (31 percent) and black women 

(27 percent) were more likely than white and Asian 

women (each 19 percent) to work in service 

occupations. (See table 12.) 

• In 2007, women accounted for more than half of 

all workers within several industry sectors: 

financial activities, education and health services, 

leisure and hospitality, and other services. 

However, women were substantially underrepresented (relative to their share of total 

employment) in agriculture, mining, construction, 

manufacturing, and transportation and utilities. 

(See table 14.) 

• Women who worked full time in wage and salary 

jobs had median usual weekly earnings of $614 in 

2007. This represented 80 percent of men’s 

median weekly earnings ($766). Earnings of Asian 

($731) and white ($626) women were substantially 

higher than the earnings of their black ($533) and 

Hispanic ($473) counterparts. Women’s-to-men’s 

earnings ratios were higher among blacks (89 

percent) and Hispanics (91 percent) than among 

whites (79 percent) and Asians (78 percent). (See 

table 16.) 

• In 2007, female full-time wage and salary workers 

with only a high school diploma had median usual 

weekly earnings of $512. This represented 80 

percent of the earnings for women with an 

associate degree ($640), and 55 percent of those 

for women with a bachelor’s degree or higher 

($932). (See table 17.) 

• In 2007, 25 percent of employed women usually 

worked part time—fewer than 35 hours per week. 

In comparison, about 11 percent of employed men 

usually worked part time. (See table 20.) 

• Women in nonagricultural industries worked an 

average of 36.1 hours per week in 2007. The 

average workweek for men in nonagricultural 

industries was 41.6 hours. (See table 21.) 

• Of all women who worked at some point during 

calendar year 2006, 61 percent worked full time 

and year round, compared with 41 percent in 1970. 

During the same period, the proportion of men 

who worked full time and year round grew from 66 

to 75 percent. (See table 22.) (These data were 

collected in the 2007 Annual Social and Economic 

Supplement to the CPS and refer to work 

experience during the prior calendar year.) 

• Both the wife and husband had earnings from work 

in 57 percent of married-couple families in 2006, 

up from 44 percent in 1967. Couples in which 

only the husband worked represented 18 percent of 

married-couple families in 2006, compared with 36 

percent in 1967. (See table 23.) (These data were 

collected in the 2007 Annual Social and Economic 

Supplement to the CPS and reflect earnings and 

work experience of the prior calendar year.) 

• In 2006, working wives’ contributions accounted 

for 36 percent of their families’ incomes, up by 9 

percentage points from 1970, when wives’ 

earnings accounted for 27 percent of their families’ 

total incomes. The proportion of wives earning 

more than their husbands also has grown. In 1987, 

18 percent of working wives whose husbands also 

worked earned more than their spouses; in 2006, 

the proportion was 26 percent. (See tables 24 and 

25.) (These data were collected in the 2007 

Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the 

CPS and reflect earnings and work experience of 

the prior calendar year.) 

• In 2007, approximately 1.2 million women paid at 

an hourly rate had earnings at or below the 

prevailing Federal minimum wage. This was 3 

percent of all women paid at an hourly rate. 

Among women 25 years and older who were paid 

hourly rates, 2 percent had earnings at or below the 

minimum wage, compared with 7 percent of 

women aged 16 to 24. (On July 24, 2007, the 

Federal minimum wage level rose from $5.15 to 

$5.85 an hour. Data in this report reflect the 

average number of workers who earned $5.15 or 

less from January 2007 through July 2007 and 

those who earned $5.85 or less from August 2007 

through the end of the year.) (See table 26.) 

• Among workers who were in the labor force for at 

least 27 weeks in 2006, women were slightly more 

likely than men to live in poverty—5.8 percent 

compared with 4.5 percent. Black and Hispanic 

women who were in the labor force for 27 weeks 

or more were significantly more likely than their 

white or Asian counterparts to be among the 

working poor. The poverty rates for black and 
3

Hispanic women were 12.0 percent and 9.8 

percent, respectively, compared with 4.8 percent 

and 3.4 percent, respectively, for white and Asian 

women. (See table 27.) (Data are from the 2007 

Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the 

CPS and reflect earnings and work experience of 

the prior calendar year.) 

• From January 2005 to December 2007, 1.6 million 

women and 2.0 million men were displaced from 

jobs they had held for at least 3 years. The women 

were somewhat less likely than the men to have 

found a new job at the time of the survey in 

January 2008: the reemployment rate for women 

was 64 percent, compared with 70 percent for men. 

Women were almost twice as likely as men to have 

left the labor force, 20 and 11 percent, respectively. (See table 32.) (Data are from the January 

2008 Displaced Worker supplement to the CPS.) 

• Among 2007 high school graduates, young women 

(68 percent) were slightly more likely than young 

men (66 percent) to be enrolled in college in 

October 2007. (See table 33.) (Data are from the 

October 2007 School Enrollment supplement to the 

CPS.) 

• In October 2007, 45.6 percent of women aged 16 

to 24 who were enrolled in either high school or 

college were in the labor force. Young men of the 

same age group who were enrolled in school had a 

lower labor force participation rate (39.6 percent). 

Among those not enrolled in school, women (73.0 

percent) were less likely to be in the labor force 

than men (87.9 percent). (See table 34.) (Data are 

from the October 2007 School Enrollment 

supplement to the CPS.) 

• Among 16- to 24-year-old women who were 

not enrolled in school, those who did not have a 

high school diploma (48.6 percent) were significantly less likely to participate in the labor force 

than those who had a high school diploma but no 

additional education (71.0 percent). Of those in 

 

the labor force, the high school dropouts were 

more likely to be unemployed than the high school 

graduates (19.0 percent, compared with 12.4 

percent). (See table 34.) (Data are from the 

October 2007 School Enrollment supplement to the 

CPS.) 

• In May 2007, the multiple jobholding rate for 

women was 5.7 percent, the same as a year earlier. 

The May 2007 multiple jobholding rate for men 

was lower, at 4.9 percent. Multiple jobholding 

rates for both women and men have edged down 

since the mid-1990s, when they were at or near 6.5 

percent. (See table 35.) (Data were collected in 

the May CPS.) 

• Since 1976, the percentage of working women who 

were self employed has trended up (from 4.4 

percent to 5.4 percent in 2007), while the 

percentage of employed men who were self 

employed has edged down (from 8.4 percent to 7.7 

percent). In 2007, 38 percent of all self-employed 

persons were women, compared with 27 percent in 

1976. (See table 36.) 

• In 2007, foreign-born women (54.9 percent) were 

less likely than native-born women (60.1 percent) 

to be in the labor force. Of those in the labor force, 

foreign-born and native-born women were about 

equally likely to be unemployed (4.6 and 4.5 

percent, respectively). Among men, the foreign 

born (81.9 percent) were more likely to be in the 

labor force than the native born (71.6 percent); the 

foreign born also were less likely to be 

unemployed (4.1 percent, compared with 4.9 

percent). (See table 37.) 

• About 12 percent of female wage and salary 

workers were represented by unions in 2007, 

compared with 14 percent of men. Union 

attachment for both sexes has fallen since 1983, 

when unions represented 18 percent of women and 

28 percent of men in wage and salary jobs. (See 

table 38.)