There has been a lot of discussion regarding America’s sagging labor force participation rate. The participation rate, which reflects the proportion of adults who are working or looking for work, stands only a few tenths of a percentage point above a multi-decade low. Men have been at the center of much of the discussion, including those living in rural areas or in Rust Belt cities. Male labor force participation has been declining for some time, but the economic impact was less apparent when women were entering the labor force in large numbers.
As indicated by writer Patricia Cohen, the share of prime-age women who were bringing home a paycheck rose toward the end of World War II and surged during the 1970s and 80s before peaking in 1999 at 77 percent. Female labor force participation then began to edge lower during the early 2000s before plunging during the recession. After more than seven years of economic recovery, female labor force participation has failed to fully recover. Fewer than 74 percent of prime age women, those aged between 25 and 54, were in the workforce as of 2015. A lack of reliable child care has emerged as one of the principal factors.
