In March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released an online report, Spotlight on Statistics, "Women at Work". This report provides data about how women use their time and money, as well as time series charts showing changes in women’s occupations, wages, and labor force participation rates.
Below are some highlights from that report:
- In 2008-2009, single women spent an average of 25.4 percent of their annual expenditures on shelter.
- In 2010, the earnings of women aged 16 and over were 81.2 percent of men’s earnings.
- The labor force participation rate for women in the United States increased from 43.3 percent in 1970 to 59.2 percent in 2009.
- The country with the steepest increase in the labor force participation rate of women is the Netherlands, which had a 28.5 percent rate in 1973 and a 60 percent rate in 2009.
- In 2010, 36.4 percent of the women aged 25 to 64 in the civilian labor force were college graduates, compared to 11.2 percent in 1970.
