BLS Data on Women Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides extensive labor market data on women (and other worker groups) through its news releases, publications, and website. Users have access to data on women’s employment, unemployment, and earnings by industry, occupation, education, age, marital status, and other characteristics. Data are also available on how women use their time and on workplace injuries and illnesses experienced by women. All of these data are also available for men. 

Much of the BLS data about women workers are collected through the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about 60,000 households. The CPS homepage is at http://www.bls.gov/cps/.

CPS data on women are summarized in two publications:

Examples of CPS-based news releases that include data on women are:

Current Population Survey data on employed women by industry are available monthly in Table A-23 of the BLS periodical Employment and Earnings, which is available in two formats: http://www.bls.gov/web/cpseea23.pdf and ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.cpseea23.txt.  

Data on women also are available from other BLS programs. 

Each month the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program surveys about 160,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 400,000 individual worksites, in order to provide detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls. CES data on women employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry are available monthly in Table B-4 of the BLS periodical Employment and Earnings, which is at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb4.txt.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time that women and men spend doing various activities, such as work, childcare, housework, watching television, volunteering, and socializing.  Data from ATUS are available on the BLS website at http://www.bls.gov/tus/.

The National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) are a set of surveys designed to gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of women and men. The NLS homepage is at  http://www.bls.gov/nls/.

The Occupational Safety and Health Statistics program publishes data each year on work-related fatalities and nonfatal injuries and illnesses for various demographic groups, including women. See the following news releases:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/osh2.pdf

 

Last Modified Date: October 20, 2008