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DALLAS, Dec 21, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. women have been leaving the labor market largely because they have had the choice to do so, a report has found.
The Dallas Federal Reserve Bank issued its study Tuesday of why women have been leaving the workforce and found that women who are "dropping out" are mostly educated, married, have children and are in higher-income families, the Dallas Morning News said Wednesday.
"It seems to be more of a choice than a consequence for people getting forced out of the labor market," said Pia Orrenius, a senior economist at the Dallas Fed.
By 1999, 76.8 percent of women aged 25 to 54 were in the workforce, up from about 35 percent a half-century earlier. But also in 1999 female participation rates began falling, hitting 75.1 percent in the first quarter of this year.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
