Why women are suffering the biggest career losses during the pandemic

As of January, federal labor statistics showed that more than 2.3 million women had left the workforce since COVID-19 first hit the U.S., plummeting their labor force participation rate (those working or looking for work) to its lowest level since 1988. Women of color have been hit especially hard. In December, for example, the U.S. economy lost 227,000 net jobs: More than 86 percent of them were held by women, the majority of whom were Black and Latinx.