Women in the Labor Force in 2010 Department of Labor 

• Of the 123 million women age 16 years and over in the U.S., 72 million, or 58.6 percent, were labor force participants—working or looking for work.
• Women comprised 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force.
• Women are projected to account for 51 percent of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018.
• 66 million women were employed in the U.S.--73 percent of employed women worked on full-time jobs, while 27 percent worked on a part-time basis.
• The largest percentage of employed women (40.6 percent) worked in management, professional, and related occupations; 32.0 percent worked in sales and office occupations; 21.3 percent in service occupations; 5.2 percent in production, transportation, and material moving occupations; and 0.9 percent in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations.
• The largest percentage of employed Asian, white, and black women (46.1 percent , 40.6 percent, and 33.8 percent, respectively) worked in management, professional, and related occupations. Hispanic women showed their strongest attachment to service occupations at 33.2 percent.
• The unemployment rate for all women was 8.6 percent and for men it was 10.5 percent. Among female race/ethnic groups, Asian women continue to have the lowest unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. For white women, it was 7.7 percent; Hispanic women, 12.3 percent; and black women, 13.8 percent.
• The median weekly earnings of women who were full-time wage and salary workers were $669, or 81 percent of men’s $824. When comparing the median weekly earnings of persons aged 16 to 24, young women earned 95 percent of what young men earned ($422 and $443, respectively).