Abby McCloskey, Politico, January 2023

“Women — and in particular mothers of young children — were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Mothers’ labor force participation fell from 74.4 percent to 70.5 percent, whereas fathers’ fell from 94.2 percent to 92.0 percent during the spring of 2020, according to the Council of Economic Advisers.

However, prime age women’s employment rate has largely recovered since then and has actually outpaced that of men. This is something that often gets lost in the conversation. Women with less than a college degree have had lower labor force participation rates than higher-educated women. But as the chart below by EPPC scholar Patrick Brown shows, the labor force participation rates of mothers with less than a BA has also largely recovered.

That said, we are experiencing a decline in labor force participation more broadly. This is attributable to a wide range of reasons. An NBER paper from this summer on “where have all the workers gone” by Eliza Forsythe, Lisa B. Kahn, Fabian Lange and David G. Wiczer mostly attributes this to an aging population and early retirement. Others, such as AEI scholar Nicolas Eberstadt, have pointed out the role of government benefits, criminal records, disability and the opioid epidemic. Fewer people choosing to work has significant macroeconomic implications for growth and innovation. There are certainly policy changes that could help on the margins, such as reducing payroll taxes or creating a wage subsidy or increasing childcare support, but getting to the driver of this trend has been elusive for policymakers.”