The current U.S labor force is different from the labor force of the 1990s. Looking back at the history of women in the United States, they struggled to get an opportunity to work in the industries, and such a situation had an impact on their numbers in the labor force until 2000. Women's participation in the labor market had been low. However, there is an exciting twist in the current U.S labor market as the current statistics from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics states that women are more than men in the labor and men’s participation in the U.S. labor market is decreasing. Understanding the catalysts of this shift in the country's labor force in the country is still a point of research. In most cases, issues such as race and ethnicity could be the factors that could account for the change in the labor force. Also, the shift in education trend as well as the government welfare could explain the differences. However, the impact of such factors on the labor force in the country is researchable. The article conducts a literature review that compares different authors' opinions, research findings, and viewpoints regarding workforce participation in the country from the 1990s to the year 2020.
Literature Review
In research by Huang, Evans, Hara, Weiss, & Hser (2011), the authors realize that despite the increasing rate of women participation in the labor force in the current United States, they still struggle because of childbearing and caring responsibility that need their attention more than men. Using the Longitudinal Survey of the Youth 1979 with 7661 participants, the authors' findings reveal that women's participation in the labor market is on the rise, and factors that can explain such an increase in labor participation are education late marriages, as well as race. From the findings, the authors reveal that women were not consistent in their work despite their increase in numbers in the labor market. Only 58% of them could work full-time ina full year compared to men whose 76% could work full time in an entire year.
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Furthermore, the introduction of affirmative action also had an impact on the rate of employment, mostly for women of color, and this could explain the rise among women of color in the job market. Lastly, the high rate of women participation in the labor force between the ages of 23 to 25 years is explained from the perspective of late marriage in this research study. The authors claim that women in the current U.S would prefer to get a job before deciding to have a family. The article by Nunn, Parsons & Shambaugh (2019) reveals more about the gap in labor participation, mostly after the great recession of the year 2008 in the country.
Both Huang et al. (2011) and Nunn, Parsons & Shambaugh (2019) agree that there is an increase in women's participation in the labor market in the past ten years. In both articles, the following results are similar; they all agree that there are sizable gaps in participation across groups in the United States. Women are less likely to be in the market labor force than men. Black men are less likely to be in the labor force than White men. Adults who did not graduate from high school participate at a much lower rate in the labor market. Those who are caregivers in their family, those facing health and disability challenges, and those with a history of incarceration are all far less likely to work than other adults. However, Nunn, Parsons, and Shambaugh (2019) detail issues such as the change in policies regarding labor as the critical factor that has led to more women getting involved in the labor market than men. They include policies that reduce any form of employment discrimination, the increase in the minimum wage, and the policies that reduce the perception among the caregiving mothers in the labor market. The article also discusses issues like telecommuting, a decrease in male workers above forty, and affirmative action.
Interestingly, it is not only in the United States, where there is an increase in women's participation in the labor market. However, it is a global trend. According to Razavi, Arza, Braunstein, Cook & Goulding (2012), there is a shift in the worldwide labor force, and women have increased their participation in the labor market. As a result of such an increase, the labor market gap between women and men is reduced from 32 to 26 percentage. Razavi, Arza, Braunstein, Cook & Goulding (2012) claims that the increasing role of women in a different task such as nursing, export, and imports and services can explain the reason that makes them a demand for mots employers. Razavi, Arza, Braunstein, Cook & Goulding (2012) also have the same viewpoints as Huang et al. (2011) that women provide much lower labor than men. Therefore, their cheap labor cost could be the reason for their preference in the current labor market. However, the finding does not mean that the rate of inequity that has, for many years, haunted the labor market as reduced according to Razavi, Arza, Braunstein, Cook & Goulding (2012). The authors still realize that despite the increase in women's participation in the labor market than men, women still receive lesser pay, and therefore, pay inequity is still a factor women are battling in the market.
One of the findings from a research study by Huang et al. (2011) was that childbearing is a factor that affects the rate of employment. In this article, the authors found that only 58% of women were able to sustain their employment status in a full year compared to men whose 76% could be fully employed for the whole year. In the same manner, Florian (2018) reveals that chi, childbearing is a factor that is hindering women from working as full-time employees. The authors use childbearing to explain the reason that makes mots women prefer telecommuting, as this gives them the best opportunity to care for their young children at home. However, Florian (2018) also looks into how childbearing is a factor that affects different women based on their race and how they get employment in the country. According to Florian (2018), women have a different pattern when it comes to child beating. White, Hispanic, and black American ladies experience different childbearing patterns, and this affects their ratio of employment in the labor market. Using random-effects models and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N =4,526), the authors realize that women of color are likely to participate or be more active in employment than white or Hispanic women because they have a brief childbearing pattern. The white female has a lesser rate of work participation because they have the most extended childbearing and rearing pattern of all.
The U.S economy has also changed in many forms. These changes have an impact on the employment status of its citizens. The changes are attributed to differences in services, demands by customers, and dynamics of the business that requires transitions to some sectors in the country’s economy. Such changes have had an impact on the type of labor the employers crave for as the economy expands. In research by Hecker & Wolf (2012), the authors present a projection in the United States economy and the job outlook between the year 2010 and the year 2020. The findings reveal the reason why the year 2020 has seen a tremendous rise in women's employment as well as participation in the labor market. From the results, Hecker & Wolf (2012) reveal that by the end of the year 2020, there will be more job positions in the service sectors than in the manufacturing industries in the country. The authors predict the rise in a job position in industries such as health and social occupations. From their research, the authors indicate most of the job positions or the professions that were traditionally entitled to men such as engineering and construction, computer science and other technical jobs are likely to decline as the industry transforms into services such as cleaning, sales, and marketing, secretarial and other jobs that have low pay and prefer female genders.
In a research study by Pew Research Center (2020), the authors also present results similar to Hecker & Wolf, M. (2012) that explain the changes in the economy and job position in the country. Such changes can describe reasons that make 2020 a year where the state may continue to witness the rise of women in the labor market forces. According to the research in this article, there is a high rise in a job position that needs social skills by 83% compared to the job position that needs analytical skills at 77%. In this article, also, the authors notice that in the past 25 years in the United States, the country has witnessed an overwhelming rise of vacant job positions in the education and health sectors. For 25 years, the education sector and health sector have contributed to the highest rate of employment positions, with each area scoring 103% and 99%, respectively. Therefore the results from both Hecker & Wolf (2012) and Pew Research Center (2020) can be essential in explaining the reason for the high rate of women participation in the current labor market in the country. Women prefer occupations that need social skills, and nursing and education have been their preference for many years. Since these job positions have been on the rise as the country demand more of such services, the women's employment rate has been increasing and still projected to grow in the country.
Also, fertility is one of the reasons that most authors pinpoint to have an impact on the states of employment and the employment participation differences among the genders in the country. A look at the fertility ratio between the years 2000 and 2020 in the United States shows a significant difference regarding the willingness of mothers to have babies between the ages of 20 to 35 years old. In a research study by Engelhardt & Brehm (2015), the authors notice that since the year 1980s, the rate of fertility among women has continued to decline, with most women changing the pattern of childbearing between the ages of 24 years old to 30 years old. In the current cases, according to these authors, women are showing the reluctance of having babies within this age bracket more often than they were in the past ten years. In a report by Hecker & Wolf (2012), the authors also notice that a change in fertility among women could be a good reason to explain the differences in the gender participation in the current U.S labor force. Such findings are also relevant to a report by Brand (2015) that also pinpoints that in contemporary society, women find it challenging to get children early because they prefer education and getting a job to help them have stable life before being mothers. The implication from such findings is that in the current age, the face of the United States employment demographics is changing because women are into books and employment than being mothers. Women have the motivation to be independent financially, and due to the decline in men who work at an advance age, women are dominating the working force, and sooner, the country may get into an era where more women will be working than men.
There is also a question of the impact of race in employment participation among genders in the country. Most non-white individuals, such as African Americans and other minority groups, have had torrent time in the country regarding employment. However, a research study by Wilson (2015) reveals that full-time work could be an excellent means to reduce the gap in employment among different races in the country. Wilson (2015) explains that the economic recoveries following 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2007 recessions in the country saw an increasing trend in full-time employment, and most of the beneficiaries in the country were African American. The authors notice that African Americans got more full-time jobs than white Americans in the wake of the economic recession recoveries. It is because organizations employ African Americans as they pay them lower salaries than white workers. Besides, affirmative action demands that the minority and vulnerable individuals should also hold positions within the company.
I Brand (2015) supports the idea that there is an increase in the rate of unemployment among African Americans, and this could explain the increasing rate of employment among the people of color in the country between the year 2010 and the year 2020. In a research study by Bednarzik & Sorrentino (2012), the authors explain that the policies the government pass that protect the people of color can also explain the reason that increases the women's participation in the U.S labor market. In current America, the government protects the minority individual by passing policies that try to bridge the gap of inequality in the labor market. The authors notice the reverse discrimination that is currently affecting the white people ‘and claim that there is a need to adjust the government policies it increase equality. SimilartoBrand, (2015), a research study by Bednarzik & Sorrentino, (2012) reveals that in the next ten years, American may see a situation where women will dominate the economy, and there will be an increase in African American women in the job position that both Hispanic and Caucasian women.
The demographic changes in the United States from the year 1990s to the year 2020 can also be a critical point of view to explain the differences in labor participation in the country. In a research study that Hipple (2016) presents, the author looks at the changes in labor participation in the United States with regards to trends in the country’s demographics between those years. According to the authors, the labor participation has drastically declined among teenagers from the year 2000 to the year 2015. The reason that explains the drop is the increasing trend in education where most teenagers enroll for their schooling instead of searching for jobs. Joining the discussion, David & Melanie (2013) notice that among the female, young female adults age 20-24 years, the employment rate has also increased. The implication could be that more female prefers getting a job before thinking of settling for family. However, Both David & Melanie (2013) and Hipple (2016) reveal that among the young female adults, African American females at their prime age of 20-30 years old have fewer jobs compared to the Hispanic and white Americans. Also, the analysis of both David & Melanie (2013) and Hipple (2016) reveal that there is still a sharp decline in labor participation among men between the ages of 34 to 54 years old. However, women at that age bracket still get involved more often in the labor market than men.
Education is also a factor that many authors use to explain the differences between labor participation among men and women in the United States. According to David & Melanie (2013), the United States has seen a shift in education with more females coming out to get degrees than males. Steven (2015) also mentions the fact that the trend in school has shifted from men to women with female gender getting more advance degrees and doctorate than males. For instance, among all racial or ethnic groups in the United States, women outperformed men at all degree levels in 2013 top the year 2016 (Hipple, 2016) This was especially noteworthy for African American women who attained the highest number of master degrees ta about 77% and doctorate than the African American men. Also, between the years 2015 and the year 2016 saw a rise in female dominance in education in the country. Between these years, women attained over half (50.7%) of all professional degrees. These include 49.6% of degrees in law (LLB or JD) and 47.4% of degrees in medicine (MD).
The impact of such a shift is evident in the country’s rate of labor participation. Women are a dominant force in the labor market due to their superiority in education, mostly at the advance level. In both research studies by Hecker & Wolf, M. (2012), Pew Research Center (2020), and Goldin & Katz (2018), the researchers make it clear from their findings that there has been an increase in demand for skilled workers in the country with a decrease in demand for semi-skilled workers. Also, the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Council of Economic Advisers (2016), makes it clear that the country has seen a tremendous rise in demand for skilled workers in social sectors such as health sectors and education sectors. Therefore, women have been much involved and active in such areas because the number of women who possess relevant documents that qualify them such jobs is overwhelming. Understandably, the United States economy is controlled by educations. It implies that the country operates manner, where those who are highly educated, are highly paid than the less educated people. Currently, women are dominating the high education, with mots females attaining a high number of degrees than men. It means that there is a shift that is about taking place as more women will be holding lucrative positions in the workplace than men.
Summary of the Literature Review
From the literature study, the following are some of the factors that authors pinpoint to be influencing the rate of labor participation in the country. They include education, ethnicity, and race, government welfare and policies, fertility, and childbearing. From the literature review, it is evident that women are increasingly participating in labor marketing because thy increasingly seek education amends have more government welfare and protection than men. Furthermore, it is still apparent from the literature review that despite their increasing participation in the economy, the people of color still face facing a lot of discrimination that limits their number in the employment sectors.
References
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