Last year, in honor of International Women’s Day, we examined labor force participation rates among men and women ages 16-64[1] in Metro Atlanta. We observed then that, while a gap persists, it has been narrowing slowly over time. How does the “what we observed” for Metro Atlanta compare to the national trend? How does Atlanta stack up against its peers? And what helps explain the variation across metro areas?
To address these questions, we again turn to data from the American Community Survey, which the Census Bureau has conducted every year since 2005.[2]
Figure 1 measures the gap in labor force participation rates[3] between females and males for the Atlanta Metropolitan Area and the United States over the period 2005-2023.
Figure 1: Labor Force Participation Rate Gap over Time, Atlanta MSA vs. the Nation
Not surprisingly, the changes are smoother over time for the nation as a whole than for the much smaller Atlanta MSA. Despite the higher volatility, the trends mostly track together over time. But the Atlanta MSA has had a somewhat higher gap in labor force participation rates than the nation as a whole– for every year except 2021.
Figure 2 focuses on the labor force participation gap in 2023 for the top twenty metropolitan areas (in terms of population).
Figure 2: Top 20 Metros: Labor Force Participation Rate Gap, 2023
As Figure 2 above shows, there is a fair amount of variation among large metros in terms of the labor force participation rate gap. Houston (82% for males vs. 70.1% for females) and Riverside (78.5% for males and 66.8% for females) exhibited the greatest gaps between male and female labor force participation rates, while Minneapolis (85.8% for males and 81.1% for females) and Boston (83.1% for males and 78.7% for females) had the smallest gaps. With an 8.1 percentage point gap (82% for males and 73.8% for females)[4], Atlanta falls toward the middle of the distribution.
What accounts for this variation across metros? One possible explanation is underlying economic conditions. Figure 3 below shows the relationship between the overall unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate gap between males and females.
Figure 3: Top 20 Metros: Unemployment Rate and Labor Force Participation Rate Gap, 2023
As the above Figure 3 shows, there is a positive relationship between the unemployment rate and the labor force participation gap among the top 20 metros (r=.50). The slope of the trend line shows that for each marginal increase in the overall unemployment rate, we expect about a 1.6 percentage point increase in the labor force participation gap. Atlanta is a bit above, but fairly close to the prediction of the trend line.
Notes:
[1] The labor force participation rate is the percentage of people– in this case, within our target age group of 16-64– who are either working or actively seeking employment.
[2] The American Community Survey suspended operations for most of 2020 due to the pandemic and as such was unable to produce estimates for that year.
[3] In other words, we subtract the labor force participation rate for female from the rate for males in order to measure the difference between the two groups.
[4] Values do not sum perfectly due to rounding.