The female breadwinner era is here: Why millions more women are working while younger men are quietly leaving the labor force

Women now hold more payroll jobs than men in the US for the first time outside a recession, signaling a structural shift in the labour market. Economists say the rise of female employment, coupled with a growing number of men leaving the workforce, is reshaping households where women are increasingly becoming the primary earners, reported Fortune.

According to recent US employment trends, women now hold more payroll jobs than men — a milestone that has occurred only twice before during the Great Recession and the period just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike those earlier episodes, economists say this change appears to be driven by long-term structural forces rather than a temporary recession.

Laura Ullrich, former regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and author of a March analysis for Indeed Hiring Lab, believes the trend is fundamentally different. “It definitely doesn’t, to me, seem like the change has been driven by a recessionary period, which is what typically drives it. This seems to be more of a long-term decline that’s led to more of a permanent shift going forward, or at least semi-permanent.”

The gender employment gap has disappeared

Three decades ago, men held nearly seven million more jobs than women in the US. That gap has steadily narrowed and has now effectively closed.

Federal Reserve labor data shows that over the past 12 months, men experienced a net loss of 142,000 jobs, while women gained 298,000. Between February 2024 and February 2026, the US added around 1.2 million jobs, with roughly two-thirds of those positions going to women, reported Fortune.

The labor force participation gap has also tightened dramatically over time. Since 1948, the male participation rate has fallen from 86.7% to 67.2%, while the female rate has risen from 32% to 57.2%.

Why are fewer men working?

Although workforce participation has declined for both genders since 2000, the drop has been significantly steeper for men.

Before the pandemic, male labor force participation stood at 69.2%. It has since fallen to 67.2%, compared with only a 0.6 percentage-point decline for women during the same period.

Ullrich says the issue begins early in adulthood.

“It’s fewer men entering. Younger men today are less likely to be working than their fathers were at that same age.”

Who is supporting unemployed men?

The answer increasingly includes parents and romantic partners.

Ullrich says financial dependence among young men has become more common, with data showing that men are more likely than women to continue living with their parents into adulthood.

“There has been more of a transition where parents are supporting their adult children for longer. The data do show that more young adult men live with their parents than women. The wealth transfer from older generations to younger generations is part of that story.”

She also notes that supporting an unemployed boyfriend or husband is no longer as socially taboo as it once was.

“Almost everybody you talk to will have a story” about supporting an unemployed man.

Video games, opioids and changing work patterns

Researchers have identified several factors contributing to men leaving the workforce.

A landmark study published in the Journal of Political Economy found that nearly 70% of the hours young unemployed men spend away from work are devoted to video games and recreational computer use. The authors concluded that advances in gaming technology since 2004 account for almost half of the increase in leisure time among young men.

Ullrich refers to this as part of “the basement story,” describing the familiar stereotype of young men spending extended periods gaming while living at home.

The opioid crisis has further weakened employment among non-college-educated men. At the same time, many unemployed men do not qualify for assistance programs such as SNAP or TANF unless they have a disability, often shifting financial responsibility to family members or partners.

The fastest-growing jobs are female-dominated

The biggest driver of the shift may simply be where jobs are being created.

Health care and social assistance — a workforce that is nearly 79% female — generated 1.8 million jobs between July 2023 and July 2025, accounting for more than half of total US job growth. Meanwhile, traditionally male-heavy industries including manufacturing, technology, finance and media have largely stagnated or contracted.

Women are also dominating the educational pipeline for these professions. They make up 87% of nursing bachelor’s students, more than 96% of speech-language pathology master’s students, and have represented the majority of medical school students since 2019.

As Ullrich explains:

“Women are the ones who have the training for these jobs. The growth that’s happening in the economy in terms of jobs is happening in female-dominated sectors.”

She adds that as more women advance professionally, they also create demand for additional service-sector jobs such as childcare, pet care and in-home caregiving — industries that also employ large numbers of women.