Women’s workforce participation in Puerto Rico rising steadily
In 2022, the Puerto Rico Labor and Human Resources Department’s Labor Force Survey estimated that 537,000 women formed part of the island’s workforce, an increase of 56,000 over the past seven years, according to a new report titled “Women’s Participation in the Labor Force.”
The labor force participation rate for women in 2022 was 36.6%, up 1.2 percentage points from 2021, 4.6 points from 2015 and 8.8 points from 1980, indicating a steady improvement over time.
Labor Secretary Gabriel Maldonado-González pointed out that women make up 53% of the island’s population and that “great progress has been made over the decades and in recent years, but there is still a long way to go to ensure gender equality at work.”
“When we delve into labor market data, we find that fewer women are employed compared to men,” Maldonado-González said. “In addition, there are many more women who are not part of the labor force, accounting for approximately 60% of a total exceeding 1.5 million people who are neither working nor actively seeking employment.”
“These data, among others, allow us to continue developing and implementing public policy aimed at eliminating barriers to formal employment, ensuring a better quality of life through work, increasing the labor force participation rate, and maintaining historically low unemployment rates,” Maldonado-González added.
Despite the increase in women’s labor force participation, the rate for men remains significantly higher, with a 51.4% participation rate in 2022, 14.8 percentage points more than women. The data reflect a growing trend in women’s labor force participation, yet less than half are part of the workforce.
Among the key findings of a recent survey by the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics and the Women’s Advocate Office, is that only 22% of women hold management positions in Puerto Rico.
In 2022, some 506,000 women were estimated to be employed in Puerto Rico, including salaried and self-employed workers, marking an increase of 37,000 since 2010. This means that women made up an average of 45.2% of the working population. The data show variations in age group composition, an increase in their educational attainment and participation in various industrial sectors and occupational groups.
Last year, 73.1% of employed women on the island were aged 25 to 54, with a notable increase in women aged 55 and older, which now represent 16.8% of employed women. All age groups have been increasing in recent years.
The primary employment sectors for women were services and trade, accounting for 65.4% or about 331,000 workers. Public administration remains an important sector, employing around 94,000 women. The manufacturing sector ranks fourth, employing 36,000 women, accounting for 7.1% of female employment.
Diverse age range and sectors
Professional and related occupations were the largest occupational group for women, with 140,000 workers, followed by office workers at 132,000. These groups represented 53.8% of employed women.
According to the 2022 results, the number of self-employed women was 53,000, a 39.5% increase compared to 2010, when there were an estimated 38,000 self-employed women.
This growth indicates a labor market shift, with 22,000 self-employed women holding professional, executive and managerial occupations and 20,000 in service occupations.
The education level among women in the labor market has significantly increased, with 72.1% having at least one year of post-secondary education and 49.2% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. This marks a difference from the data of 1980 when the median education level was 12th grade.
In 2022, the distribution of employed women by marital status was: married (45.1%), single (40.1%), widowed or divorced (6.1%), and in a consensual union (8.7%). In the 1980s and 1990s, more than 60% of employed women on the island were married. There has been a moderate change in this characteristic since 2005, with an increase in single women’s employment by 16.3 percentage points from 1980 (23.8%). This likely has a correlation to social changes and women’s expectations regarding their careers.
In 2022, an estimated 31,000 women were unemployed in Puerto Rico, a decline of 8,000 from 2021 and the lowest since at least 1980.
Women’s unemployment rate has historically been lower than men’s, with a rate of 5.8% in 2022. Young women aged 20 to 24 faced the highest unemployment rate at 10.3%, making them the group with the most difficulty finding employment.
Finally, the report highlights that, in 2022, an estimated 932,000 women were categorized as outside the workforce, not working or actively seeking employment. The main reason for their labor inactivity was household responsibilities, accounting for 50.2%.
“The other reasons for not being active in the labor market are described below: 18.9% were retired; 13.5% attended school; 8.9% were disabled and the remaining 8.3% were included in one of the following categories: considered very young or advanced in age, illness or health conditions, and discouraged,” the Labor department said in its news release.
Compared to 2015, there was a reduction of 88,000 in the number of workforce-inactive women. However, historically, less than half of the women in Puerto Rico have participated in the labor market.
