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\n JOHANNES EISELE\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/cite>
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More women than men held jobs in December \u2014 a sign of women\u2019s progress in the workplace, said one observer, but still not proof of equal footing with men in the job market. <\/p>\n Women held 76.2 million \u2014 50.4% \u2014 of the 152.3 million non-farm payroll jobs in December, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures. It\u2019s the second time women eclipsed men for payroll jobs, the first time coming during the Great Recession\u2019s grip in mid-2010. <\/p>\n \u201cIn general, women are dominating service sector jobs,\u201d said Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan who served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist in the Obama administration\u2019s Labor Department. \u201cPerhaps the most important issue is that women are working where jobs are growing. Health care added more jobs in 2019 than 2018, while jobs grow slowed substantially in mining, construction, transportation & warehousing, and construction,\u201d she wrote <\/a>on Twitter
The numbers were tucked inside a December jobs report that found the economy created 145,000<\/a> jobs during the last month of 2019, mostly in the economy\u2019s service side, which is where many women have traditionally built their careers. <\/p>\n In December, the retail sector created 41,000 jobs, while the hospitality industry increased staff by 40,000 and the health-care industry added 28,000 workers. The construction sector hired 20,000 while manufacturing lost 12,000 jobs. <\/p>\n The payroll numbers don\u2019t paint the entire picture because they don\u2019t include self-employed workers and can possibly double count people who are on multiple payrolls working more than one job.<\/p>\n The trend of more payroll jobs for women \u201chas been on the rise, on the wave, for a number of months and years now,\u201d said Ariane Hegewisch, program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women\u2019s Policy Research, which advocates for more women\u2019s rights at home and in workplace. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good we are getting to 50-50,\u201d she said, noting the goal isn\u2019t to have women outnumber men in the labor force. <\/p>\n But it\u2019s more important to examine women\u2019s pay, Hegewisch said. \u201cIf you look at wage gap figures, they have not improved,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n In 2018, a woman\u2019s median earnings were 81 cents on the dollar a man made, according to BLS findings last year<\/a>. From 2004 to 2018, that number has hovered between 80 cents and 82.5 cents, the agency said. <\/p>\n Some of the fast-growing jobs in the health and care-giving field are not lucrative, Hegewisch noted. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says home health aide jobs are projected to grow at 37%<\/a> through 2028, but the pay is only $24,200. <\/p>\n Of course, some growing health sector jobs do pay nicely, like a physician assistant job that\u2019s projected to earn $108,610 per year. <\/p>\n
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