Employment Rates
The nationwide employment rate of 58.7% is 2 percentage points lower than Feb 2020. Black and Hispanic workers have been hit particularly hard with employment rates down 3 to 4 percentage points.
Men’s employment rates have grown 3x as fast as women’s employment rates since the summer. Employment rates for both men and women are now similar to low points following the Great Recession.
Employment rate by race/ethnicity, U.S.
Jan 2008 - Sep 2021
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Note: The employment rate is officially known as the “employment-population ratio.” Here it is calculated for the population 16 years and older. Data is seasonally adjusted.
The nation gained only 194,000 jobs in September and the employment rate remained at 58.7% — well below February 2020 when 61.1% of all people aged 16+ had employment. In September 2021, only 56% of Black people aged 16+ nationwide were employed. White, Hispanic, and Asian persons aged 16+ had employment rates of 59%, 62%, and 62%, respectively.
While many employers report difficulty finding workers, jobs have still not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Instead, workers are quitting at record levels, driven to some extent by the desire to keep working remotely.1 Overall, potential hirees are demanding higher wages and better working conditions — including livable wages and work schedules, flexibility, and remote work.2,3,4 Once the shake-up in the labor market settles down, many Americans will still lack employment.
Unless and until jobs fully rebound and eventually exceed pre-pandemic levels, many workers may return to freelance and gig work that offers fewer benefits — leaving them vulnerable to future shocks. Indeed, each recession since the 2000 dot-com bust has hammered away at employment rates, leaving many people without stable employment — particularly Black/African Americans.5
Employment rate by gender, U.S.
Jan 2008 - Sep 2021
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Note: The employment rate is officially known as the “employment-population ratio.” Here it is calculated for the population 20 years and older. Data is seasonally adjusted.
Nationally, in September 2021, the employment rate for men inched up to 66.7%, while the employment rate for women was stagnant at 54.7%. Child care and elder care remain significant impediments to women’s ability to return to work. In September, nearly 1.2 million parents reported being unable to look for a job due to disruption in child care. Mothers with children younger than 13 years have experienced a 4 percentage point decline in labor force participation since January 2020. And mothers of children under 6 have been most likely to consider leaving their job or cutting back on hours.6
Even before the pandemic forced child care centers to close, 83% of parents with a child under 5 reported extreme difficulty finding quality, affordable child care.7 While metrics of child care supply versus demand are scant, one online platform, Sittercity.com, found the ratio of families seeking babysitters to babysitters grew from 5 to 1 before the pandemic to 14 to 1 in July 2021.8
In addition, demand for home health aides hit a high point in 2020 as families aimed to keep elderly and disabled family members out of nursing homes where the virus circulated widely.9 But many women had to provide elder care themselves, making a return to work more difficult. Lack of child care and home health care will be a roadblock to many women’s ability to return to work and will continue to contribute to employers’ challenges in finding workers.
“1 in 3 Remote Workers May Quit if Required to Return to the Office Full Time, Robert Half Survey Finds”. Newswire. April, 2021. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/1-in-3-remote-workers-may-quit-if-required-to-return-to-the-office-full-time-robert-half-survey-finds-848559105.html
“The truth behind America’s labor shortage is we’re not ready to rethink work”. Kaplan, Winck. Insider. May, 2021.
“ Many people don’t want to work unless it’s from home”. Molla. Vox. June, 2021.
https://www.vox.com/recode/22543409/remote-work-from-home-jobs-supply-demand-hiring-platforms
“Customers Are Back at Restaurants and Bars, but Workers Have Moved On”. Haddon, Chen, and Weber. The Wall
Street Journal. July, 2021.
“Employment-Population Ratio”. FRED. June, 2021. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EMRATIO
"Mothers are being left behind in the economic recovery from COVID-19”. Bauer. Brookings. May, 2021. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/05/06/mothers-are-being-left-behind-in-the-economic-recovery-from-covid-19/
“America’s Child Care Deserts in 2018”. Malik, Hamm, Schochet, Novoa, Workman, and Jessen-Howard. Center for American Progress. December, 2018. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2018/12/06/461643/americas-child-care-deserts-2018/
“Child-Care Workers Might Not Come Back”. Lucchesi. The Atlantic. August, 2021. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/delta-child-care-shortage-unvaccinated-kids/619919/
“Business Is Booming, But Home Care Demand Is ‘Probably at a Midpoint’”. Famakinwa. Home Health Care News. December, 2020. https://homehealthcarenews.com/2020/12/business-is-booming-but-home-care-demand-is-probably-at-a-midpoint/