Why women are returning to the job market in such big numbers

Deandrea Rahming was apprehensive about going back to work after more than a decade out of the job market, but in the wake of the pandemic she found employers eager to hire.

Deandrea Rahming

Deandrea Rahming was eager to go back to work when her youngest child started school, but after more than a decade of being out of the workforce, she wasn’t certain employers would want her.

“I was very apprehensive,” Rahming says. “With a woman, it’s always, ‘Do you have kids? Do you have daycare? Are you reliable?’”

When Rahming began looking for jobs in the wake of the pandemic, though, she found desperate employers who were eager to hire.

The extra income from the jobs she landed as a claims adjuster, and later an administrative assistant, were a welcome boost for her family’s budget. But Rahming says the satisfaction that came from working was bigger than just a paycheck.

“I come from a very long line of modern women,” Rahming says. “So going back and working and being able to fulfill that accomplishment, like, ‘OK, Yeah. I can do this. I still can run with the best of them.’”

Women like Rahming are helping to keep the economy running, as well. With employers adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, and unemployment near a half-century low, the U.S. needs more people to come off the sidelines to keep the economy growing.

“Where are the workers going to come from?” asks Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan. “What we’re seeing is they are showing up month after month to take the jobs, and in particular, it’s women showing up to take the jobs.”

A major boost to the economy

In May, the…