Record 56,167,000 Women Out Of Labor Force

A record number of women were not in the labor force in April, according to numbers released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Last month, the number of women not in the workforce increased from the previous record of 56,131,000, registered in March, to a new record of 56,167,000.

The BLS defines people not in the labor force as those ages 16 and older who are neither employed nor have they “made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week.”

While the number of women out of the labor force increased, so too did the number of women in the civilian workforce — increasing from 73,211,000 in March to 73,267,000 in April.

The workforce participation rate among women remained at 56.6 percent and the unemployment rate increased slightly from 5.3 percent in March to 5.4 percent in April.

The data mirrors the national numbers, which saw the number of people not in the workforce hitting a new record at 93,194,000.

Despite the high numbers of people not in the workforce, the number of people in the workforce actually grew as well with from 156,906,000 in March to 157,072,000 in April, the labor force participation rate increased overall from 62.7 percent to 62.8 percent.