Women Make Gains in the Workplace Amid a Rising Demand for Skilled Workers

January 30, 2020

Not only are women gaining greater representation in jobs that are most demanding of social and fundamental skills, but employment in those jobs is growing rapidly.

The gist:

US companies “are increasingly in pursuit of workers who are adept in social skills, like negotiation and persuasion, and have a strong grounding in fundamental skills, such as critical thinking and writing.”

Women are in the vanguard of meeting these challenges. Not only have women been entering the labor force in greater numbers than men since 1980, they have made their presence felt more strongly in jobs with the greatest reliance on these types of skills.

The result?

“The growing presence of women in higher-skill occupations has contributed to more rapid wage growth for them in recent decades compared with men, and this helped to narrow the gender wage gap.”

The Stats:

• Not only are women gaining greater representation in jobs that are most demanding of social and fundamental skills, but employment in those jobs is growing rapidly. From 1980 to 2018, overall employment more than doubled in jobs where social and fundamental skills are most important, by 111% and 104%, respectively.

• Employment in jobs most in need of analytical skills increased nearly as sharply (92%), compared with an increase of 58% in employment overall. increase in wages for women has been sharper in jobs calling for greater prowess in skills. For instance, women’s earnings increased by 58% from 1980 to 2018 in jobs placing the greatest emphasis on analytical skills.

• The gender wage gap narrowed from 32 to 12 cents to the dollar in those jobs. This was due in part to a rapid rise in college completion among women working in high-skill jobs.

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