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Today’s jobs data shows an economy holding fairly steady, with 199,000 new jobs added in November, just over half of which (110,000) went to women.

Nearly a quarter of the jobs added last month came as striking workers returned following successful contract negotiations in the motion picture industry (17,000 jobs) and motor vehicles manufacturing sector (30,000 jobs). The wage gains striking workers negotiated are critical to help their paychecks keep pace with inflation as many workers struggle to make ends meet on smaller increases, proving once again that unions are critical tools for increasing wages and closing wage gaps. Meanwhile, health care jobs increased by nearly 77,000 last month, accounting for 39 percent of all job gains — a welcome increase as we enter another winter respiratory illness season and COVID once again appears to be on the rise.

Unemployment rates declined slightly for women, with women overall dropping to 3.1 percent, Black women to 4.8 percent, and Latinas to 3.9 percent while participation rates stayed steady. This mirrored the trends for men overall, though Black and Latino men’s participation notably increased, driving increased unemployment for Black men. Women’s largest job gains in November were in private education & health services (65,000), government (35,000) and leisure & hospitality (31,000). Women’s largest losses were in professional & business services (-22,000) & retail trade (-15,000).

Lastly, the child care sector continues to struggle; it’s still down more than 30,000 jobs since before COVID. Investing in child care supports women’s labor force participation and supports child care workers, the vast majority of whom are women. Congress can act to help support families, workers and the economy by passing additional funding to support the sector.

Read our entire analysis of the Jobs Report on Twitter.

Click to open the full tweet thread in a new window.