Budget cuts, caring for parents take toll on older working women

Since the last recession began, many women in their late 40s and early 50s have left the workforce just as they were reaching their peak earning years.

The need to care for aging parents is not the only reason. Some economists also attribute the unexpected phenomenon to extensive budget cuts by state and local governments, which employ women in large numbers and were hit harder during this recession than in previous downturns.

The number of working women ages 45 to 54 has dropped more than 3.5 percent since the end of 2009. About 1 million fewer women of that age are now in the labor force.

For younger women the rate of decline was about 2 percent — and many of those in their 20s dropped out temporarily to return to school or focus on care for young children.

Men, too, have been pushed out of the labor market as jobs in construction and manufacturing have been slow to return. But the rate of decline among adult men has largely tracked the curves of the economy and has been spread more evenly across ages.

New York Times

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