For the first time in nearly 10 years, women in the US have taken up more space in the workforce than men, according to a labour department report released in December.
USA Today reports women had 109,000 more jobs than men, placing them at 50.04%.
According to the news site, the last time women briefly dominated the workforce there was in 2010, after the US came out of a recession.
Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said this was due to job losses in male-dominated sectors such as construction and mining.
He told CBS News that this gap would likely be permanent, as women work in fast-growing industries like health care and education.
Construction and manufacturing industries saw an increase of 356,000 jobs, while health care and education services doubled their figures, adding more than 600,000 jobs in the same period.
University of Michigan professor and former adviser to former US president Barack Obama Betsey Stevenson expressed the same view.
“The most important issue is that women are working where jobs are growing. Health care added more jobs in 2019 than 2018, while jobs growth slowed substantially in mining, construction, transportation and warehousing,” she tweeted.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
