The Labor Force Experience of Women from 'Generation X'

Wom e n from ‘Ge ne ra tion X'

‘

The la b or forc e e xp e rie nc e of wom e n from ‘Ge ne ra tion X’

W o men aged 25 to 34 years in 2000 participated in the labor force in greater proportions, were more educated, earned more, and generally enjoyed more labor market benefits than their counterparts 25 years earlier; moreove r , the “earnings gap” between young women and men narrowed substantially over the period

Ma risa DiNa ta le a nd Ste p ha nie Bo ra a s

uring the 1960s and 1970s, legislation and changing social mores dramatically altered the choices young women had years had completed 4 or more years of college, compared with 18 percent 25 years earlier.

D

about their futures. Girls growing up during this period were influenced both by the conventions of their parents’ generation and by the new opportunities that were becoming available to them. In contrast, girls born in later years grew up in an era in which women often were expected to combine market work¹with family responsibilities. Consequently, women who were aged 25 to 34 years in 2000 had a markedly different relationship to the labor market than did their counterparts in 1975.
The first part of this article focuses on the major demographic and labor market indicators that are used to describe young women. These indicators will be used to see how the group and its relationship to the labor market has changed over the past quarter century. The second part focuses on issues facing young women in the labor market today.²

•

Young women have substantially closed the “earnings gap” with their male counterparts since 1979 (the first year for which comparable earnings data are available from the CPS). They earned 82 percent as much as young men in 2000 for full-time work, compared with 68 percent in 1979.

••

Married women aged 25 to 34 years—particularly those who had children—were far more likely to be in the labor force in 2000 than 25 years earlier.

Young women were working more hours and more weeks out of the year in 1999 than were their counterparts 25 years ago; black women were more likely than either white or Hispanic women to work full time and year round.

•

Nearly one million women aged 25 to 34 were displaced from a job between January 1997 and December 1999; when surveyed in February 2000, displaced young women were more than 4 times as likely as their male counterparts to have left the labor force.
The highlights include the following:

•

About three-quarters of women aged 25 to 34 years participated in the labor force in the year 2000, compared with a little more than half in 1975.

Ma risa DiNa ta le a n d Ste p ha nie Bo ra a s a re e c o no m ists in the Divisio n o f La b o r Fo rc e Sta - tistic s, Bure a u o f La b o r Sta tistic s.

•

Young women today are more highly educated than were their counterparts in 1975; in 2000, 30 percent of women aged 25 to 34

•

The vast majority (83 percent) of employed women aged 25 to 34 had health insurance cov-

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3

Wo m e n fro m ‘Ge ne ra tio n X’

Ta b le 1.

Se le c te d c ha ra c te ristic s of wom e n a nd m e n a g e d 25 to 34, Ma rc h 1975 a nd 2000

Women

Men

Cha ra c te ristic

1975

2000

1975

2000

Civiliannoninstitutionalpopulation,

aged25to34,total(inthousands) .......................

15,316

19,188

14,366

18,310

Ra c e a nd Hisp a nic orig in¹

White ................................................................ Black ................................................................ Hispanicorigin ....................................................
86.6 11.3
5.4
79.0 14.9 14.6
88.7
9.3 5.1
81.6 12.4 15.4

Ed uc a tion²

Lessthanfouryearsofhighschoolorlessthan ahighschooldiploma ........................................ Fouryearsofhighschool,nocollege
20.2 45.9
10.9 28.9
17.9 36.9
13.0

32.4

orhighschooldiploma,nocollege ........................

1to3yearsofcollegeorsomecollegeor associatesdegree ............................................
4ormoreyearsofcollegeorcollegedegree .............
16.3 17.6
30.3 29.9
19.6 25.6
25.9 28.7

Ma rita l sta tus³

Married,spousepresent ....................................... Unmarried,total .................................................. Nevermarried .................................................. Othermaritalstatus .......................................... Divorced ....................................................... Separated ..................................................... Widowed .......................................................
76.3 23.7 10.8 12.9
6.8
57.0 43.0 30.2 12.8
7.7
74.6 25.4 17.1
8.2
49.5 50.5 41.0
9.5

4.6

5.7

5.5

4.7

3.5

.1
3.6

.1

.7

.4

Pre se nc e a nd a g e of c hild re n

Withchildrenunderage18 ..................................... Withchildrenages6to17,noneyounger .............. Withchildrenunderage6 ...................................... Underage3 .................................................... Withnochildrenunderage18 ................................
76.0 23.3 52.6 27.6 24.0
59.8 18.2 41.7 25.1 40.2
–––––
38.8
7.8
31.0 21.1 61.2

¹DetailforraceandHispanic-origingroupswillnotsumtototalsbecause dataforthe“otherraces”grouparenotpresentedandHispanicsmaybe includedineitherthewhiteorblackpopulationgroups.
³Maritalstatusdataformenin1975isforthetotalpopulationand includesmembersoftheArmedForces.

²Since1992,dataoneducationalattainmenthavebeenbasedonthe
“highestdiplomaordegreereceived”ratherthanthe“numberofyearsofschool completed.”
N^OTE: Datafrom1994forwardarenotdirectlycomparablewithdatafor
1993andearlieryearsduetotheCPSredesign. Dashesindicatedatanot available.

erage in February 2001; about 60 percent of women in this age 2000. In those 25 years, the share of women in this age group

group received coverage through their employers.

who had completed at least 4 years of college rose from 18 to

30 percent.At the same time, the share of men with that level of education only edged up 3 percentage points to 29 percent. Over the same period, the proportion of young women who had dropped out of high school fell from 20 percent to 11 percent. (See table 1.)
While white women continued to have the most schooling among the three major race-ethnic groups in 2000, black women made large strides in educational attainment over this period. In 1975, 32 percent of black women aged 25 to 34 had completed fewer than 4 years of high school, and just 10 percent had completed 4 or more years of college. In 2000, by

Ind ic a tors of c ha ng e

As a group, women who were aged 25 to 34 years in 2000 differed in a number of their demographic and labor force characteristics from their counterparts 25 years earlier. The subsections that follow describe some of these differences.

Educational attainment. The level of education among

women aged 25 to 34 improved dramatically between 1975 and

4

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La b or forc e p a rtic ip a tion of wom e n a nd m e n a g e d 25 to 34 b y se le c te d d e m og ra p hic c ha ra c te ristic s, Ma rc h 1975 a nd 2000

Ta b le 2.

(Num b e rs in thousa nd s)

Wom e n
Pa rtic ip a tion ra te
Me n
Pa rtic ip a tion ra te
Cha ra c te ristic
Num b e r

1975

Num b e r

2000

1975

2000

1975

2000

1975

2000

Civilianlaborforce,aged25to34 ...........................

8,304

14,787

54.2

77.1

13,692

17,091

95.3

93.3

Ra c e a nd Hisp a nic orig in¹

White ............................................................. Black .............................................................. Hispanicorigin ..................................................
7,054 1,083
384
11,622
2,298 1,784
53.2 62.8 46.6
76.7 80.6 63.6
12,219
1,216
686
14,097
1,984 2,658
95.9 91.2 94.1
94.4 87.7 94.1

Ed uc a tion²

Lessthan4yearsofhighschoolorlessthan ahighschooldiploma .......................................
4yearsofhighschool,nocollege orhighschool diploma,nocollege ..........................................
1to3yearsofcollege orsomecollege
1,260 3,753
1,141 4,124
40.8 53.3
54.7 74.3

2,371

2,053

92.3

97.2
86.0

93.7

5,155

5,559

orassociatesdegree .......................................
4ormoreyearsofcollegeorcollegedegree .............
1,434 1,858
4,592 4,930
57.5 68.9
79.0 85.9

2,638

4,474

5,005
93.8 96.0
94.3

95.4

3,528

Ma rita l sta tus

Married,spousepresent ....................................... Unmarried,total .................................................. Nevermarried ................................................... Othermaritalstatus ........................................... Divorced ........................................................ Separated ...................................................... Widowed ........................................................
5,648 2,656 1,325 1,331
796
7,788 6,999 4,918 2,080 1,295
734
48.3 73.3 80.4 67.4 76.8 57.9 48.5
71.2 84.9 84.9 84.7 87.7 81.7 63.7
10,365
3,327 2,213 1,114
626
8,765 8,326 6,704 1,623
991
97.3 89.7 88.2 92.7 92.7 92.8 91.2
96.7 90.0 89.3 93.4 94.4 92.2 84.3

486

471

612

49

51

18

20

Pre se nc e a nd a g e of c hild re n

Withchildrenunderage18 .................................... Withchildrenaged6to17,noneyounger ...............
5,281 2,147
8,054 2,739
45.4 60.0
70.1 78.4
––
6,855 1,352
––
96.5 94.6

Withchildrenunderage6 .................................... Underage3 ................................................... Withnochildrenunderage18 ................................
3,134 1,402 3,023
5,315 3,024 6,733
38.9 33.2 82.2
66.5 62.7 87.4
–––
5,504 3,752
–––
96.9 97.2

91.4

10,236

¹DetailforraceandHispanic-origingroupswillnotsumtototalsbecause dataforthe“otherraces”grouparenotpresented andHispanicsmaybe includedineitherthewhiteorblackpopulationgroups. Since1992,dataon educationalattainmenthave schoolcompleted.” N^OTE: Datafrom1994forwardarenotdirectlycomparablewithdatafor1993 andearlieryearsduetotheCPSredesign.Laborforceandparticipationrates areforthecivilianpopulation. Dashesindicatedatanotavailable.
²Since1992,dataoneducationalattainmenthavebeenbasedonthe
“highestdiplomaordegreereceived,”ratherthanthe“numberof yearsof

contrast, just 13 percent of black women in this age group did not have a high school diploma, and 17 percent had college degrees. Among young Hispanic women in 2000, however, a relatively high proportion (36 percent) had not completed high school. (This compares with about half in 1975.) About 11 percent had college degrees. More than half (55 percent) of the young Hispanic women living in the United States in 2000 were foreign born, and these immigrants typically have less education than their U.S.-born counterparts. In fact, half the foreign-born Hispanic women of this age group had not completed high school (compared with 19 percent of those born in the United States), and only 9 percent had a Bachelor’s degree or more (compared with 17 percent of those born in the United States).
The advances in educational attainment among young women during the 25-year period were much sharper than those of their male counterparts. In 1975, the proportion of men with a college education exceeded that of women by a considerable margin. By 2000 however, the proportions with college degrees were about equal, and, in the case of whites and Hispanics, the women were somewhat more likely to be college graduates than were the men.

Marital status and motherhood. Over the 1975–2000 period,

trends in marriage and family formation changed considerably.³For example, women aged 25 to 34 years in 2000 were

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5

Wo m e n fro m ‘Ge ne ra tio n X’

less likely to be married than their counterparts 25 years earlier correlated with education levels, but the difference between and less likely to be mothers. In 1975, more than 3 out of 4 those with a college degree and those with less than a high women in this age group were married; by 2000, the proportion school diploma was less pronounced—about 95 percent of had dropped to 3 out of 5.Additionally, in 1975, just 11 percent young adult men with college degrees were in the labor force, had never married; this proportion had nearly tripled to 30 compared with 86 percent of those with less than a high school

percent in 2000.

education, a difference of only 9 percentage points.

The changing marital status of women also impacted family formation. In 1975, 76 percent of women in the 25- to 34-year Occupations. Women aged 25 to 34 work in virtually every age group had children; this figure had declined to 60 percent occupation, but they are more heavily represented in some by 2000.Also, as the average age of childbearing rose, women occupations than others. (See table 3.) Due to a change in the aged 25 to 34 were far less likely to have older children, but way occupations were classified in the CPS, comparable data they were nearly as likely to have children under age 3 as were are available only to 1983. It is still useful to examine them to

their counterparts a generation earlier.

look for any trends that may have emerged over the past couple

decades.

Labor force characteristics. Since 1975, the labor force par-

Since 1983, women have made headway into the higher-payticipation rate—the proportion of the population that is either ing executive, administrative, and managerial occupations, and working or actively looking for work—of women aged 25 to 34 professional specialty occupations. They also have become more years has increased by about 20 percentage points. White likely to work in sales and service occupations. While the latter women had the largest increase in participation, although black tend to be lower-paying jobs, men aged 25 to 34 years also are and Hispanic women also showed large gains. In contrast, the increasingly likely to work in these occupations.

labor force participation rate for men in the same age group

Women made up 46 percent of all employed 25- to 34-year-

drifted down, from 95 to 93 percent, with the decline far larger olds in 2000 and 44 percent in 1983. They made up about 80 for black men than for whites. (See table 2.) The growing labor percent of all workers in this age group in administrative supforce participation rate of women is related to a number of port (clerical) jobs in both years. Women also were more confactors, but perhaps the two that have had the greatest impact centrated in service occupations in 2000 than they were in are the increasing rates of educational attainment among 1983. They accounted for about 65 percent of the total in serwomen and the lower propensity to marry among women aged vice occupations in 2000 and 59 percent in 1983. (See table 4.) 25 to 34. In 1975, the median age at first marriage for women In contrast, women continued to represent a smaller portion of

was 21.1 years; in 1998, it was 25.0 years.⁴

employed 25- to 34-year-olds in manufacturing-related occu-

Women’s labor force participation rates are strongly corre- pations such as precision production, craft and repair, where lated with levels of educational attainment. In 2000, 86 percent they made up only about 8 percent of workers in both years.

of women in the 25- to 34-year age group with college degrees

Among young workers in executive/managerial, profes-

were in the labor force, compared with only 55 percent of those sional, and technical occupations overall, about half were with less than a high school diploma, a difference of about 31 women in 2000. While the proportions of young women in percentage points. Men’s participation rates also were closely professional specialty and technical occupations were about

Ta b le 3. Em p loye d wom e n a nd m e n a g e d 25 to 34 ye a rs b y m a jor oc c up a tion, a nnua l a ve ra g e s, 1983 a nd 2000

Women

Me n

Oc c upa tion

1983

2000

1983

2000

Tota l e m p loye d

Number(inthousands) ..................................................

12,540

14,006

16,216

16,494

Percent ...................................................................... Executives,administrators,andmanagers ......................... Professionalspecialtyworkers ........................................ Techniciansandrelatedsupportworkers ........................... Salesworkers .............................................................. Administrativesupport,includingclericalworkers ................ Serviceworkers ........................................................... Precisionproduction,craft,andrepairworkers ................... Operators,fabricators,andlaborers ................................. Farming,forestry,andfishingworkers ...............................
100.0
9.2
100.0
15.5 20.5
4.4
100.0
11.4 13.0
3.9
100.0
12.8 14.7
3.5
18.5
4.7

9.9

11.5

22.6 16.3
2.0
10.5
5.9
10.8

5.8

30.2

14.9
2.5

8.0

9.9

22.2 20.7
4.3
19.6 19.7
3.2

9.1

6.4

1.0

0.8

6

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Ta b le 4. Em p loye d p e rsons a g e d 25 to 34 b y m a jor oc c up a tion, se x, ra c e , a nd Hisp a nic orig in, 2000 a nnua l a ve ra g e s

(Num b e rs a re in tho usa nd s)

Pe rc e nt wom e n
Oc c up a tion
Tota l e m p loye d

Tota l

White

Bla c k

Hispa nic

Total,aged25to34 ......................................................... Executive,administrative,andmanagerialoccupations .............. Professionalspecialtyoccupations ........................................ Techniciansandrelatedsupportoccupations ........................... Salesoccupations .............................................................. Administrativesupportoccupations,includingclerical ................ Privatehouseholdoccupations .............................................. Protectiveserviceoccupations ............................................. Serviceoccupations,excludingprotectiveandhousehold ........... Precisionproduction,craftandrepairoccupations .................... Machineoperators,assemblersandinspectors ........................ Transportationandmaterialmovingoccupations ........................ Handlers,equipmentcleaners,helpers,laborers ......................... Farming,forestryandfishingoccupations ...............................
30,501
4,281 5,300 1,196 3,386 4,129
118
45.9 50.6 54.2 51.8 47.4 76.8 94.1 16.6 65.3
8.1
36.2 41.9 44.0 41.6 38.4 60.0 80.5 10.1 48.4
6.3
7.1 5.7
5.6 4.1

5.9

3.3

7.4

5.2

6.4

5.3

13.5 11.0
6.0
10.0 42.4

1.3

632

3,157 3,514 1,743 1,235 1,176
634
13.9
1.1
10.8
1.6
34.0
8.9
24.7
5.3

6.0

9.2

3.3

1.0

16.8 17.4
11.7 16.6

4.4

4.2

0.5

5.5

includedinboththewhiteandblackpopulationgroups.
NOTE: DetailfortheraceandHispanic-origingroupswillnotsumtototals becausedataforthe“other races”grouparenotpresentedandHispanicsare