• Of the 116 million women age 16 years and over in the United States, 68 million were labor force participants—working or looking for work.
  
  
• With a labor force participation rate of 59.2 percent, women represented 46 percent of the total United States labor force.
  
  
• Labor force participation rates for women, by race, were: black, 61.5 percent; white, 58.9 percent; Asian, 57.6 percent; and Hispanic, 56.1 percent.
  
  
• Women are projected to comprise 47 percent of the total labor force in 2012 as they did in 2003. They will also account for 55 percent of the increase in total labor force growth from 2002-2012.
  
  
• The higher a person’s educational attainment, the more likely they will be a labor force participant. Here are the labor force participation rates for women age 25 years and over by educational attainment: with less than a high school diploma—32.5 percent; with a high school diploma—54.1 percent; some college, no degree—64.3 percent; associate degree—71.5; and bachelor’s degree and higher—72.8 percent.
  
  
• Greater educational attainment usually results in lower unemployment rates: women with less than a high school diploma—10.0 percent; with a high school diploma—4.9 percent; some college, no degree—4.7 percent; and bachelor’s degree and higher—2.7 percent.
  
  
• There were 64.7 million employed women in the U.S. in 2004. Seventy-four percent worked full time, while the remaining 26 percent worked part time.
  
  
• The largest percentage of employed women (38 percent) worked in management, professional, and related occupations, while 35 percent worked in sales and office occupations.
  
  
• Smaller percentages worked in service occupations, 20 percent; 6 percent worked in production, transportation, and material moving occupations; and 1 percent worked natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations.
  
  
• Approximately 4 million women were self-employed in nonagricultural industries. These self-employed women represented nearly 6 percent of all employed women.
  
  
• The seven occupations with the highest median weekly earnings among women who worked full-time in 2004 were pharmacists, $1,432; chief executives, $1,310; lawyers, $1,255; computer and information systems managers, $1,288; computer software engineers, $1,149; computer programmers, $1,006; physicians and surgeons, $978; and human resource managers, $958.
  

Souce: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.