Women Gain Most of the Jobs as Growth Slows and Low-Wage Sectors Gain, NWLC Analysis Shows

(Washington, D.C.) Adult women’s unemployment rate declined to 6.5 percent in July, matching a recovery-era low, but job gains were concentrated in low-wage sectors, according to new analysis by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) of data released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Women gained most of the jobs added last month and their unemployment rate dropped—but today’s numbers are still cause for concern,” said Joan Entmacher, NWLC Vice President for Family Economic Security. “Just 162,000 jobs were added in July, and at this pace, it will take until 2024 to close the jobs gap, according to estimates by the Hamilton Project. Nearly half of all the job gains last month were in low-wage sectors—retail trade, leisure and hospitality, and temporary help services—continuing a troubling trend. Our recent analysis shows that since the start of the recovery, 60 percent of women’s job gains have been in low-wage occupations. It’s time for members of Congress to stop slowing the recovery—they must end sequestration and invest in job growth.”

The “jobs gap” measured by the Hamilton Project is the number of jobs that the U.S. economy needs to create to return to pre-recession employment levels while also absorbing the people who enter the labor force each month.

Nearly half of the net gains in July came in three low-wage sectors: retail (+46,800), leisure and hospitality (+23,000), and temporary help (+7,700), despite the fact that these sectors account for less than a quarter of the economy.

Women’s largest jobs gains were in the low-wage sectors of retail (+29,500) and leisure and hospitality (+16,000), as well as professional and business services (+44,000), which includes low-wage temporary help services.

Men’s largest gains were in retail (+17,300), wholesale trade (+10,100), and financial activities (+9,000).

The unemployment rate for adult women declined to 6.5 percent in July, matching a recovery-era low – but it is still more than two percentage points higher than at the start of the recession in December 2007.

Over 4.2 million jobless workers are long-term unemployed—unable to find work after more than six months of searching. About four in ten adult jobless workers are long-term unemployed.

Unemployment rates for adult African-American women and single mothers declined in July, while the rate for adult Hispanic women increased. The rates for all these groups are one-and-a-half times higher than at the start of the recession.

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