A Look at the Gender Gap in Employment by Levels of Educational Attainment

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows data on labor force participation, employment, and unemployment by educational attainment. And the data is broken down by gender.

In October 2017, 45.6 percent of women who had graduated from high school earlier that year had entered the civilian labor force, compared to nearly 53 percent of men who had graduated from high school in 2017. But 15.2 percent of recent male high school graduates were unemployed compared to 11.2 percent of women who had recently graduated from high schools. The Labor Department defines unemployed people as actively seeking work but unable to find it.

For women 16 to 24 years of age who were enrolled in college in October 2017, 48.7 percent also were employed. For men in this age group who were enrolled in college, 44.2 percent also held jobs. For men ages 16 to 24 who were enrolled in college, the unemployment rate was 6.1 percent compared to 5.4 percent for similarly aged women who were enrolled in college.

For women aged 20 to 29 who were college graduates in October 2017, 77.9 percent were employed, a rate just slightly higher than their male peers. But the unemployment rate for male college graduates in this age group was 11.7 percent, compared to only 6.9 percent for women. But men in this age group with a graduate degree were more likely to be employed and had a lower unemployment rate than women of the same age who had a graduate degree.