Today’s jobs data show one of the better months in recent memory, with the economy adding 172,000 jobs and unemployment rates virtually unchanged. But digging into the data reveals some alarming trends.
On the surface, women made some progress over the month – they accounted for more than half of the job gains last month and their unemployment rate declined slightly.
Though leisure and hospitality makes up less than 11 percent of the economy overall, more than 40 percent of last month’s job gains were in the sector, a continuation of a trend we’ve seen over the last year. Since May of 2025, the economy has added a mere 503,000 jobs. Close to half of these jobs (240,000) have been in leisure and hospitality. In May of 2026, women made up more than 80 percent of new leisure and hospitality job gains. Leisure and hospitality is by far the lowest-paying sector of the economy – workers in this industry make less than half the average weekly wage. In other words, not only has job growth been slow over the last year – the jobs that have been added offer lower wages and fewer benefits, making it harder and harder for workers to keep up.
Looking back at unemployment data shows a similar story of a struggle to get ahead. The number of people who are unemployed for six months or longer has increased by more than half a million workers over the last year. And while headlines are focused on unemployment rates, which have remained flat over the last year, those figures mask the shrinking share of people who are working. For both men and women, the share of people who are working has declined since January 2025.
The ongoing lackluster numbers come amidst the news that the stock market is rewarding the ultra-wealthy – the investors who already hold more than one-third of the world’s wealth. These stock gains are driven by the AI-boom – a boom that is especially putting women workers at risk.
So how do regular people – those of us who are not just the wealthy few – feel about the economy? In short, women hate it here. The latest data from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers reveals that women’s rating of the government’s economic policies has hit an all-time low – again. How women feel about the way the government fighting inflation or unemployment plummeted steeply starting last spring, hitting a historic low in March 2025. Since then, their ratings have continued to slide: in the last 13 months women’s rating has hit historic lows four more times.
Today’s data show an economy that is designed to benefit the powerful few while leaving workers – especially women – struggling to get ahead. These findings only underscore the need to advance policies that ensure that people are paid fairly, protected from discrimination and harassment and able to bring home a bigger paycheck so that they and their families can thrive. These policies are especially important for women of color, who also face larger pay gaps and systemic racism. Policymakers should act now, before circumstances get even worse.
