Data shows Women driving job growth as Male workforce pattern shifts. Jobs mostly come from Heathcare & Social Assistace sectors
**Source:** WSJ, 12 May 2026
**Article Summary:**
Over the past year, nearly all net job growth has come from healthcare and social assistance, a sector with a dearth of men. Sectors with heavily male workforces have been losing jobs. The postpandemic period has seen an influx of women in their prime working years into employment. The share of men working has flatlined.
The divergent path might widen in the years ahead. As the needs of an aging population stack up, occupations that men have historically been loath to enter, such as jobs as home health aides and medical assistants, will likely play a bigger role in the labor market.
A growing educational divide is also part of the equation: Women now earn bachelor's degrees at a substantially higher rate than men, and employment rates among people who are college-educated are substantially higher than those who aren't.
Friday, the Labor Department reported the overall unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.3%. Unemployment rates for men and for women weren't all that different from each other—4.4% vs 4.2%, respectively—just as they weren't before the pandemic. But the unemployment rate includes only people actively looking for work. A broader picture of employment trends comes from looking at the share of the population that is working.
Among men age 16 and over, the employment-to-population ratio was 64.1% in April. That compared with an average of 66.6% in 2019, and 70.9% in the 1990s. A lot of that decline can be explained by an aging population: There are a lot more male retirees than there used to be.
The share of women working has always been lower than men's, but it has held up much better despite an aging population. Women's employment-to-population ratio came to 54.5% in April, a bit below its 2019 and 1990s averages.