While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seen drastic ebbs and flows from variant to variant, in the early spring of 2022, seemingly, the world is experiencing positive changes and getting the spread under control. People who decided to leave the labor force at the beginning of the pandemic are now returning to work, or are they?
According to a recent study by the National Women’s Law Center, a division of the U.S Department of Labor Statistics, the number of male workers that left their positions has indeed returned. Men who left the workforce between February 2020 to January 2022 have completely replenished their active working numbers, while women are still far from making up the labor deficit lost during the global health crisis. It is estimated that over 1.8 million positions filled by the female labor force, lost from February 2020 to January 2022, have not returned to work yet. You don’t need to be an analyst to see an imbalance in the active workforce.
Why Haven’t Women Returned to the Labor Force?
While there are many facets to consider regarding the shortage of female labor returning to the workforce, two of the most significant contributing factors are pay inequality and the need for childcare. While the pandemic is still happening, schools have come back into session, but not all parents are comfortable with their children returning to school and increasing the risk of viral exposure. Also, more pressing, women have been forced to consider how providing full-time childcare at home can be more financially viable than attempting to work a full-time position and arrange for childcare services. Childcare is very expensive, and for many families, the costs of sourcing childcare can be more than its worth – for this reason, it sometimes makes sense for women to stay home and be there for the kids while the male counterpart can return to the labor force.
What Can Businesses Do To Help Women Return to Work?
While some of these trends and statistics are troublesome, all hope is not lost. Companies looking to acquire talented women to join their teams can provide incentives like equal compensation and childcare options to help them rejoin the labor force. However, it must be clearly understood by female job seekers that these benefits exist; this is why strategic recruitment marketing efforts and informative online job posts for the women looking to re-enter the workforce must be in place as the pandemic wanes.
AllJobs by Jobiak is a Global Jobs Distribution Platform (GJDP), a one-stop source of all available jobs in real-time. The team at AllJobs has been working for years to source, consolidate, optimize, and present open positions to job seekers while providing a solution to employers to help get their job data reconciled and presented to million of desirable candidates.
Amongst some of the more exciting developments in online jobs distribution is the efforts by employers (and platforms) to provide more detailed information, including benefits, salary, and unique work perks right in the job description window, all without having to navigate through different web pages.
Employers now have a tremendous opportunity to address female candidates’ concerns and communicate with them clearly and efficiently about their efforts to help them rejoin the workforce – including childcare assistance.
Click the link to learn more about AllJobs (GJDP)
