Throughout much of 2025, we heard rumblings about a new exodus of women from the labor force. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released December’s
jobs report this morning, finally giving us a full picture of what actually happened last year.
The U.S.
added 50,000 jobs in December. That was well below economists’ expectations of 73,000 new jobs. Unemployment fell to 4.4%, still higher than 4% unemployment at the start of 2025. Economists say it’s a “low hire, low fire” economy.
During the month, 81,000 people left the workforce. And according to an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center, those losses are entirely among women. Ninety-one-thousand women left the workforce last month, while 10,000 men joined.
Throughout 2025, women’s labor force size increased by 184,000. Men’s increased by a much higher 572,000. So: men joined the labor force at three times the rate of women last year. And as the NWLC puts it, “Women’s gains in 2025 are but a fraction of the gains women have made in previous years.”
Even as overall unemployment falls, unemployment is climbing for Black women, from 7.1% in November to 7.3% in December.
Across the economy, employers added 584,000 new jobs last year—much slower growth than in 2024, when 2 million jobs were added. It’s the weakest annual job growth since 2003. And, the NWLC’s analysis confirms, women are receiving the brunt of this impact.
Emma Hinchliffeemma.hinchliffe@fortune.comThe Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’
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