New Report: Gender and Race Segregation in the Labor Market, Public Workforce System

Posted by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on April 30, 2024

From 2017 to 2021, women were more likely than men to work in low-wage jobs in fields dominated by their gender. When choosing what types of jobs to train for, men in the public workforce system tended to select higher-paid fields like transportation or technology. Women were more likely to pursue training for lower-paid jobs in health care.

These are the findings of a study that looked at segregation by gender, race, and ethnicity in occupations in the U.S. labor market overall and in the training that participants in the public workforce system pursue. The research also finds that although the most common training paths varied little by race and ethnicity, those that White men and women pursued paid roughly $5,000 more per year, on average, than the ones Black and Hispanic participants of the same gender pursue.

Prior research shows that occupational segregation plays a role in well-known gender and racial wage gaps in the labor market. The study raises questions for consideration about how we might remove barriers and ensure more equitable representation in occupations throughout the U.S. labor market.

Read the report.