Working Moms Continue to Call It Quits

The Washington Post highlights a pronounced trend in the labor force: Working moms continue to exit. The story cites Census Bureau stats showing that the share of mothers ages 25 to 44 in the workforce has decreased every month this year, adding up to a drop of 3 percentage points from January to June.

• The retreat is attributed in part to the continued rollback of remote work that gave mothers the flexibility to work from home while caring for young children. Such flexibility was seen as a big reason many had returned to work after the pandemic.

• "It's become harder for women, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, to thrive in this job market," says Misty Heggeness, a former Census Bureau economist who is now a professor at the University of Kansas. Her analysis of federal data buttresses the story. "It's clear that we're backsliding in the Ken-ergy economy, that the return-to-office chest pounding is having a real ripple effect."
• In an op-ed in Forbes written earlier this year on the trend, Christine Michel Carter worried about the trend. "While large cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago often dominate national headlines, the economic ripple effects of mothers exiting the workforce are most visible in mid-sized American cities, places like Greensboro, North Carolina, or Chattanooga, Tennessee." It "isn't just a policy failure," she adds. "It's a visible economic shift. These cities are not just losing employees; they're losing future homeowners, entrepreneurs, civic leaders and financial contributors."