We are revisiting the complex changes on our economy with new data on women's employment, CEO confidence and consumers' spending plans.
Women's Labor Force Participation Hits 33-Year Low. In January, another 275,000 women dropped out of the labor force. This accounts for nearly 80% of all workers over age 20 who left the workforce last month, according to a National Women's Law Center analysis of the latest jobs report. This brings the total number of women who have left the labor force since February 2020 to more than 2.3 million, and it puts women's labor force participation rate at 57%, the lowest since 1988.
Many of these women, says Emily Martin, VP for education and workplace justice at NWLC, have been forced to leave the workplace due to ongoing closures of schools and daycare centers. These women, she explains, are not included in the calculated unemployment rate, which is already disproportionately high for women of color.
"To be counted as unemployed, you have to be looking for work," she tells CNBC's "Make It." "Those who have left the labor force are no longer working or looking for work, so in some ways the unemployment rate is artificially lowered by the fact that it doesn't capture these millions of women."
Of the women who were working last month, 17% of those over age of 16 were involuntarily working part-time because they couldn't find full-time work. For women of color, this number was even higher, with 27.9% of Latinas, 24.4% Black of women and 18.5% of Asian women forced to work part-time.
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Source: Connley, C. (2021, February 8). Women's Labor Force Participation Rate Hit A 33-Year Low In January, According To New Analysis. CNBC.
CEO Confidence Spikes. A survey on CEO confidence about the economic outlook reveals growing optimism, i.e., their best outlook in 17 years.

Source: Allen, M. (2021, February 19). CEO Confidence Spikes. Axios AM: Axios.
Spending the Stimulus Check. A Bloomberg/Morning Consult survey explores how Americans might spend their third stimulus check:
Source: Egkolfopoulou, M. And Fanzeres, J. (2021, February 11). Americans' Saved-Up Stimulus Checks Could Bring Economic Boost. Economics, Bloomberg Wealth: Bloomberg.
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