Line chart showing monthly labor force participation rate of 25-54 year old women by living situation and whether they have children, January 2020–January 2022. The change in labor force participation rate for single women without kids was less dramatic. Many single moms initially returned to work earlier than single women, but their participation in the labor force has been more volatile over the past two years.
Labor force participation rate is a measure of how much of the working-age population is currently in the workforce or looking for work. It is a more stable metric to analyze long-term employment trends than the unemployment rate, which tends to be more volatile month to month.

We show data for women ages 25-54, a standard demographic used for employment analysis due to likely completion of studies and unlikely engagement in retirement. We only show data for mothers with school-age children (between the ages of 5-17) since they are more likely to have been affected by lack of child care. Mothers of young children have generally lower rates of labor force participation.

Sources: University of Minnesota Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey; Misty Heggeness
Chart: Jasmine Mithani & Chabeli CarrazanaThe 19th・19thnews.org