u/Sad-Surprise-2903

As of early 2026, women held more payroll jobs than men in the United States. This has happened twice before — briefly during the Great Recession and again just before Covid — and both times it reversed. Laura Ullrich, a former regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond who authored a March analysis through Indeed’s Hiring Lab, says this time is structurally different.

“It definitely doesn’t, to me, seem like the change has been driven by a recessionary period, which is what typically drives it,” she told Fortune. “This seems to be more of a long-term decline that’s led to more of a permanent shift going forward, or at least semi-permanent.”