The job market is bouncing back—but not for these workers

The jobs report that came out today held good news for many American workers. In May, employers added 172,000 jobs—stronger than projected job growth—and unemployment did not budge from 4.3. The leisure and hospitality sector led much of that growth, adding 70,000 jobs, while industries like healthcare have also continued hiring in significant numbers. The last few months of job growth, in fact, have been stronger than any other three-month period in over two years. One group of workers, however, has continued to face hurdles, even as the job market has returned to a steady state. While about 120,000 workers joined the labor force in May—namely workers aged 20 or older—an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) found that it was only men who made those advances. Women actually left the workforce last month, in line with a worrying trend that started anew last year. According to the NWLC, the latest figures reveal that over 300,000 women have exited the workforce thus far this year. Women in the workforce had largely recovered from the job losses during the pandemic that disproportionately impacted working mothers. But over the last year, things have shifted: About 212,000 women exited the workforce in the first half of 2025, and there was a clear decline in employment among working mothers in particular. According to a Washington Post analysis, the number of working mothers between the ages of 25 and 44 dipped by almost three percentage points between January and June last year. In December alone, about 91,000 women left the labor force, per the NWLC—and it’s clear from the most recent figures that those losses have continued. Over the course of 2025, more women did enter the workforce, but at a much slower pace than men did; the share of women in the labor force increased by 184,000, while the number of men jumped by 572,000. The employment picture this year has been somewhat confusing, as both men and women have faced headwinds in the labor market. The last jobs report suggested that some men are also dropping out of the workforce, as the number of men working or actively looking for a job fell to the lowest figure in decades (with the exception of the pandemic). This is fueled not just by men retiring or aging out of the workforce, but also by an uptick of young men stepping away from the workplace for a variety of reasons. Another explanation for this decline is that job growth has been more concentrated in sectors where women tend to be overrepresented, such as healthcare and education—just as other industries that attract more men, like manufacturing, have contracted. The gender gap in employment has also been closing for years, and women actually outpaced men on payrolls earlier this year, though that was driven in part by the decline in men’s labor force participation. All this means that workers are still in a relatively precarious position, despite what the latest top-line data on job growth might indicate. And while the job market seems to be bouncing back, there are any number of challenges that remain unchanged, from the widespread adoption of AI to the systemic issues that have long made it difficult for women and caregivers to preserve their foothold in the workforce.