Thread by @19thnews

The April #JobsReport is out.

- 165,000 women left the workforce, meaning they stopped looking for work altogether
- 355,000 men joined the workforce
- The U.S. economy is still short about 2 million women workers.

Here’s what else the report shows: 🧵bit.ly/2PYsPRz

Unemployment rates continue to be higher for women of color.

- 8.6% for Black women
- 7.5% for Latinas
- 4.8% for White women

Black men have the highest unemployment rate of any racial group at 10.2 percent. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

The economy overall added 266,000 net jobs — far below projections that April would see nearly a million net jobs added.

Of those added, 161,000 jobs were held by women, thanks in part to job increases in the women-dominated hospitality industry. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

Hospitality lost nearly half of all its positions in April 2020, helping to set off the first women’s recession.

While the industry has seen gains in recent months, it is still down 2.8 million jobs from February 2020. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

Other fields that employ women, including local government education and social assistance, also saw gains last month.

The child day care services sector added 12,000 net jobs. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

In April 2020, some 2.8 million women left the labor force.

The losses continued after that, and though 1.6 million have since rejoined the workforce, the U.S. economy is still short about 2 million women workers compared with February 2020. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

The slack on the recovery is due in large part to the continued impact of the pandemic and the progress of vaccinations.

Just under a third of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

*️⃣The jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys households and businesses during the second week of April, therefore the data doesn’t reflect any changes after April 19, when vaccinations became available for all American adults. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

Vaccinations are one piece of the puzzle.

The others are access to the social structures that help workers — especially women — go to work, including child care, paid leave and school reopenings. bit.ly/2PYsPRz

“The same thing is true now that was true the last April jobs report we had, which is the economy will not recover until the pandemic is contained, and economic growth is not going to cure the pandemic,” @keds_economist said.

More from @ChabeliH: bit.ly/2PYsPRz