women workers post gains in construction and other industries

More women than men are now participating in the U.S. labor market, with their numbers significantly increasing in the construction, hospitality, and healthcare industries.

So reports the Department of Labor in its latest jobs numbers, noting that in December women overall held 50.04 percent of the nation’s jobs, an advantage of more than 109,000 paid positions nationally over men.

The larger employment picture for the last month of 2019 showed the creation of 145,000 new jobs, adding to what is now a solid decade of employment growth.

That ongoing growth, notes the Wall Street Journal, comprises the “longest stretch in 80 years of record keeping.”

New healthcare jobs for all of 2019 were in excess of half a million, with the hospitality industry adding 284,000 new jobs. New construction jobs were smaller, but at around 170,000, still strong.

Smaller gains of 75,000 and 62,000 were posted respectively in the manufacturing and transportation industries.

The growing number of women workers in construction jobs comes as the industry has increasingly reached out to them to fill a record high number of vacancies.
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According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released last year, the total percentage of women in the nation’s construction industry is now at around 10 percent.
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While women carpenters and electricians makeup less than 4 percent of those professions, they comprise around 8 percent in the construction management sector, and 14 percent of the nation’s building inspectors. 

​By Garry Boulard

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