Women in Labor Force Matches 24-Year Low

While President Obama and the left continue the meme that pro-life Americans are waging a “war on women” because they support abortion restrictions, the real “war on women” is surging at kitchen tables throughout the nation, courtesy of the Obama administration’s policies.

CNSNews.com reported Tuesday that the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ newly released data indicates American women participated in the nation’s labor force in September at a rate that matched the lowest level in 24 years.

Meanwhile, the number of women actually holding jobs decreased by 154,000 from August to September.

The actual unemployment rate for women dropped from 6.8 percent to 6.7 percent, due to the fact that the decline in the number of females in the labor force was greater than the number of females actually holding jobs. These statistics are based on the definition of what it means to be a “participant in the labor force.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a person participates in the labor force if they are 16 or older, not institutionalized, and either have a job or have been seeking work within the last four weeks. The labor force participation rate is calculated as the percentage of those people who either have a job or have actively looked for work in the last four weeks.

BLS reports that the labor participation rate for women in September was 57.1 percent, a drop from 57.3 percent in August and 57.4 percent in July. The female labor force participation rate also declined to 57.1 percent in March. Before March and September, however, February of 1989 was the last time the female labor force participation rate had dropped as low as 57.1 percent.

In September, according to BLS data, the female civilian labor force experienced a decline of 268,000 from August. In addition, the number of women working in America dropped 154,000 between August and September.