By Jonnelle Marte

(Reuters) – September saw a decline in the U.S. job market for women, just like it did a year ago when many schools switched to online education. The drop in women looking for work or working last month was smaller than that in 2020, as there were more schools that reopened.

According to the U.S. Labor Department’s monthly employment report, Friday’s data shows that women still face an uneven labor market recovery following being affected by the pandemic. The data raises questions about whether the September 2020 improvement in U.S. employment reports, likely due to the reopening schools contributing to this year’s recovery, will be enough to reduce the gender gap in workforce participation that was widened by the coronavirus pandemic.

In September and August this year, 350,000 of the older women left the workforce while 321,000 men were in the same age bracket joined.

The result is that women age 20 or older are now less likely to be in work, with a decrease of approximately 2,000,000 since February 2020. This deficit is nearly twice as large for men.

C. Nicole Mason (president and chief executive officer at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research) stated in a statement that women face “great headwinds” as they attempt to reenter work after a pandemic. It will be a while before we see the effects of a hopefully declining pandemic on women’s careers and their job prospects.

An uneven return to the workforce https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/lgpdwlmybvo/chart.png

The report is still a significant improvement over last year’s, which saw the number of women working in the workforce aged 20 to 40 drop by more than 1,000,000 between August and September. This was after schools reopened using virtual learning, and many students had to learn from their homes.

As more women return to work, there are more hiring resumes from the overrepresented sectors. In addition, a greater number of school districts have reopened for individual instruction.

However, some mothers face difficulties in securing childcare while trying to find work. There is also a lack of skilled workers. In some areas with high COVID-19 infections rates, school closings are temporary.

In September, after a 366,000 job gain in August, hiring slows down.

In September, 74,000 more women worked in hospitality and leisure, an area that has a high proportion of female staff. The second month was not markedly different in terms of hiring at bars and restaurants.

The U.S. has seen a decline in coronavirus infections since September, which is expected help to improve the economy’s health over the next few months.