Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2023 / 09:00 am
Mothers with young children are helping to lead a spike in female participation in the labor force, according to a new study from a D.C.-based think tank.
The Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative of the Brookings Institution, said this month that a recent analysis of labor force participation showed the “[labor participation] rate for prime-age women” had recently “exceeded its all-time high” after dipping during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a controlled analysis of those data, the researchers found that “prime-aged women,” which it defines as women between the ages of 25 and 54, were leading the “overall” rebound of labor participation in recently surveyed months and that among them, “women whose youngest child is under the age of 5” are leading that demographic’s resurgence.
“Overall, growth in participation among mothers with young children since 2020 exceeds other prime-age women when differentiated by the age of one’s youngest child,” the study determined.