Employment and EarningsAdministrator2020-12-09T18:08:37-05:00

Trends in Employment and Earnings

Women’s status in the area of employment and earnings has improved on two indicators since the publication of IWPR’s last national report on the status of women, the 2004 Status of Women in the States, and remained unchanged or declined on two others. Women’s median annual earnings for full-time, year-round work in 2013 ($39,157) were nearly identical to their earnings for similar work in 2002 ($39,108 when adjusted to 2013 dollars). The gender earnings ratio improved during this time from 76.6 to 78.3 percent, narrowing the gender wage gap by 1.7 percentage points, and the share of women working in professional or managerial occupations grew from 33.2 to 39.9 percent. Women’s labor force participation rate, however, declined from 59.6 in 2002 to 57.0 percent in 2014.

BestWorst
1. District of Columbia51. Mississippi
2. Maryland50. West Virginia
3. Massachusetts49. Idaho
4. Connecticut48. Louisiana
5. New York47. Alabama
1206, 2014

Securing a Better Future: A Portrait of Female Students in Mississippi’s Community Colleges

This report presents findings from a survey of female community college students in Mississippi conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and commissioned by the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi.

606, 2014

Men Still 699,000 Jobs Short of Employment Recovery; Strong Job Gains in May for Men and Women in Female-Dominated Industries

According to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of the June employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), although the total number of jobs lost in the recession has been recovered (138,463,000 jobs in May 2014 vs. 138,350,000 jobs in December 2007, when the recession began), men are still short 699,000 from their prerecession peak. Women regained their peak in August 2013. In May, women gained 86,000 jobs on nonfarm payrolls, while men gained 131,000 for an increase of 217,000 total jobs in May. In the past year, men have gained more than half the new jobs added (53 percent vs. 47 percent for women).