1The gap in labor force changes amounts to roughly 493,000 more women than men being absent from the labor force since the pandemic began.
This is the difference between the roughly 2.3 million women missing from the U.S. workforce as of February 2021, compared with about 1.8 million men.When it comes to unemployment -- which refers to people in the labor force who are not working but are either actively seeking work or waiting to be recalled from temporary layoff -- the opposite pattern has emerged.The number of unemployed workers has increased by about 2.2 million men and 1.9 million women since February 2020.
Thus, when including declines in labor force participation, overall job losses have been similar between genders (4.0 million.