“Women Are Not Half of the U.S.

Labor Force”
and Other Data Clarifications
The Catalyst Information Center created this document in early 2010 to resolve data mistakes
and misconceptions we have read about lately. Learn more about the Catalyst Information Center
at www.catalyst.org/page/75/information-center.

Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization working globally
with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for
women and business. Learn more about Catalyst at www.catalyst.org.

1. Are women half or more than half of the labor force in the United States?
No, they are not. According to the most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in
2009, women were 46.7% of the U.S. labor force.1

2. Are women half or more than half of employed workers?

No, they are not. According to the most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in
2009, women were 47.3% of employed workers.2

3. What about the many news stories I’ve seen that say women are 50% or more
of the labor force or workforce?
During the recession, men were losing jobs at a rapid pace, and if they had continued to do so
indefinitely, women would have become half the labor force. But this will not necessarily be the
case, as male-dominated industries that contracted during the recession are already growing or
likely will begin growing again. The 2009 articles that said women were becoming the majority
were basing their numbers on “nonfarm payroll” or “payroll” data (see next question) but often
still using the terms labor force, workforce, and employment without clarifying the information.

Examples of that happening in mainstream media include the following:

• Casey B. Mulligan, “When Will Women Become a Work-Force Majority,” The New
York Times (May 6, 2009). http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/when-will-
women-become-a-majority-of-the-workforce/
• Dennis Cauchon, “Women Gain as Men Lose Jobs,” USA TODAY (September 3, 2009).
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-02-womenwork_N.htm
• Rampell, Catherine, “Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces,” The New York
Times (February 5, 2010).
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/business/economy/06women.html?scp=90&sq=wo
men&st=nyt

4. I read that “women hold 50% of establishment payroll jobs.” What does that
mean?

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This is an interesting number, but it comes with many important qualifiers, including the
limitations of “establishment payroll jobs” and whether data has been seasonally adjusted, which
are explained below.

The Data: According to Bureau of Labor Statistics’ revised numbers published in February
2010, women in January 2010 held 50.3% of seasonally unadjusted, nonfarm payroll jobs based
on Business Establishment Survey data. The revision release made minor changes to previously
released data, and women first hit this qualified benchmark in February 2009 when they held
50.0% of seasonally unadjusted, nonfarm payroll jobs. During 2009, women also held 50 percent
or more of seasonally unadjusted, nonfarm payroll jobs during March, November, and December
2009. 3

In January 2010, women held 49.9% of nonfarm payroll jobs based on Business Establishment
Survey data that has been seasonally adjusted.

Establishment Payroll Jobs vs. Labor Force: The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Business
Establishment Survey Establishment collects data on “establishment payroll jobs.” Establishment
payroll jobs are not the same as the labor force. The Business Establishment Survey samples
390,000 business establishments nationwide for payroll data. It does not include agricultural
workers, self-employed workers, household workers, active military, and some military
reservists. There is no separate category for part-time workers, and part-time workers are
counted as part of the total. The 50.3% or 49.9% statistics about women are complicated by these
limits since women are a higher proportion of part-time workers and men are a higher proportion
of agricultural and self-employed workers, skewing the data results toward women.4, 5

While the Business Establishment Survey is accurate, it is not a complete measure of persons in
employment, and it is not comparable with labor force data, employed persons data, or women in
particular occupations data. The Information Center’s contact at the Bureau of Labor Statistics
acknowledges that this survey is not designed to pick up demographic information.

Seasonally Adjusted vs. Seasonally Unadjusted: Seasonal adjustment removes the effects of
events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year. These adjustments make it easier to
observe the cyclical and other nonseasonal movements in a data series. During cold months,
industries such as construction, which employ more men than women, see a predictable seasonal
decline since less construction happens in cold weather. Looking at seasonally unadjusted data
during winter months will further skew data results toward women.

If the 50.3% or the 49.9% numbers are used, it must not be improperly compared with other
numbers and one cannot use the term “labor force.”

5. Why doesn’t Catalyst use the higher Business Establishment Survey payroll
data?
As explained above, the payroll data is not a complete picture of employment. Further, since the
Bureau of Labor Statistics does not collect the same detailed level of data for the Business
Establishment Survey (part of the Current Employment Statistics) that it does for the Current

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Population Survey, we could not compare it to other data we frequently use, such as the number
and percent of women in certain industries and occupations, women working part-time, working
mothers and most of the other Bureau of Labor Statistics data Catalyst uses.

6. Will women ever be more than 50% of the labor force?

We do not know. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research hopes that a 50% milestone will
encourage policymakers to look more closely at equal pay, flexibility, sick leave and other issues
that disproportionately affect women.7

Time will tell whether changing laws, economic growth (or not), and women’s increasing
education rates, and the growth of a knowledge economy leads to them becoming a majority of
the labor force or increasing numbers of management, professional and related occupations.
According to the most recent labor force projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
however, in 2018 women are projected to be 46.9% of the labor force, 0.2 percentage points
higher than they were in 2009.8

7. What is the difference between “labor force” and “employed” data from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics?
The labor force data is composed of:9
• Employed workers age 16 and older in agriculture industries.
• Employed workers age 16 and older in nonagricultural industries.
• Unemployed workers, which are defined as people who want to work and are available to
work and who have made recent specific efforts to find employment, as well as people
waiting to be hired back to a job from which they had been laid off.

The labor force does not include:

• People who are not available or do not desire to work.
• “Marginally attached workers,” which are people who want to work or are available to
work but have not searched for work within the previous four weeks of data collection.
• “Discouraged workers,” which is a subset of marginally attached workers and defined as
people who want to work and are available to work but are not looking for work because
they believe there are no jobs available or none for which they would quality.
• Anyone who falls outside the “civilian noninstitutional population.” The “civilian
noninstitutional population” is defined as persons 16 years of age and older residing in
the 50 States and the District of Columbia who are not inmates of institutions (for
example, penal and mental facilities, homes for the aged), and who are not on active duty
in the Armed Forces.

Employed workers, a subset of the labor force, is composed of:

• The civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older in agriculture and
nonagricultural industries who are actively employed.

8. How many women are in management, professional, and related occupations?

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According to the most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2009 women were
51.4% of “management, professional, and related occupations.” This is the occupation category
Catalyst uses in its Catalyst Pyramid of Women in U.S. Business.10, 11

Additionally, for these subsets of “management, professional, and related occupations,” women
are:12
• 43.7% of management, business and financial operations occupations
• 37.4% of management occupations
• 57.5% of professional and related occupations

SOURCES

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2009 Current Population Survey, “Employment
status of the civilian noninstitutional population by detailed age, sex, and race,” Annual Averages 2009 (2010).
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2009 Current Population Survey, “Employment
status of the civilian noninstitutional population by detailed age, sex, and race,” Annual Averages 2009 (2010).
3. 50.3% is calculated from the “total nonfarm” numbers for from the following two tables: Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Establishment Data, “B-12. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by detailed industry, not seasonally
adjusted” ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb12.txt and “B-13. Women employees on nonfarm payrolls by
major industry sector and selected industry detail, not seasonally adjusted”
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb13.txt. The February, March, November, and December 2009 not
seasonally adjusted numbers are calculated from these two tables: “Comparison of All Employees, not
seasonally adjusted” ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.compaeu.txt and “Comparison of Women Workers, not
seasonally adjusted” ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.compwwu.txt. 49.9% is calculated from the following
two tables: “Table B-3. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by major industry sector and selected industry detail,
seasonally adjusted” and “Table B-4. Women employees on nonfarm payrolls by major industry sector and
selected industry detail, seasonally adjusted.” ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb3.txt
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb4.txt All tables: http://www.bls.gov/ces/tables.htm#ee
4. Current Employment Statistics, Frequently Asked Questions. http://www.bls.gov/ces/cesfaq.htm
5. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment and Earnings: Explanatory Notes and Estimates of Error” (February
2004). This Bureau of Labor Statistics report highlights more about the differences between the Business
Establishment Survey and the Current Population Survey, which is designed for collecting demographic
information. http://www.bls.gov/cps/eetech_intro.pdf
6. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Establishment Data, Benchmark comparisons, “Comparison of All Employees,
Seasonally Adjusted, before and after the March 2008 Benchmark,” and “Comparison of Women Workers,
Seasonally Adjusted, before and after the March 2008 Benchmark.” (Total nonfarm employees, revised data).
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.compaes.txt ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.compwws.txt
7. Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “When will women cross the 50% mark?” FemChat (October 2, 2009).
http://www.iwpr.org/blog/2009/10/when_will_women_cross_the_50_m.html
8. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, “Civilian Labor Force by Age, Sex, Race, and Ethnicity.”
http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_301.htm
9. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Glossary.” http://www.bls.gov/bls/glossary.htm
10. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2009 Current Population Survey, “Employment
status of the civilian noninstitutional population by detailed age, sex, and race,” Annual Averages 2009 (2010).
11. Catalyst, “U.S. Women in Business Pyramid” (2010). http://www.catalyst.org/publication/132/us-women-in-
business
12. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2009 Current Population Survey, “Employment
status of the civilian noninstitutional population by detailed age, sex, and race,” Annual Averages 2009 (2010).

UPDATED February 8, 2010

© 2010 Catalyst Inc. 4