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Text Box: Of the 122 million women age 16 years and over in the U.S., 72 million, or 59.2 percent, were labor force participants—working or looking for work. Women comprised 46.8 percent of the total U.S. labor force and are projected to account for 46.9 percent of the labor force in 2018. Women are projected to account for 51.2 percent of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018. 66 million women were employed in the U.S.—74 percent of employed women worked on full-time jobs, while 26 percent worked on a part-time basis. The largest percentage of employed women (40 percent) worked in management, professional, and related occupations; 32 percent worked in sales and office occupations; 21 percent in service occupations; 5 percent in production, transportation, and material moving occupations; and 1 percent in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations. The largest percentage of employed Asian, white, and black women (47, 41, and 34 percent, respectively) worked in management, professional, and related occupations. For Hispanic women, it was sales and office occupations—32 percent. The 20 most prevalent occupations for employed women in 2009 were— Secretaries and administrative assistants, 3,074,000 Registered nurses, 2,612,000 Elementary and middle school teachers, 2,343,000 Cashiers, 2,273,000 Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides, 1,770,000 Retail salespersons, 1,650,000 First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers, 1,459,000 Waiters and waitresses, 1,434,000 Maids and housekeeping cleaners, 1,282,000 Customer service representatives, 1,263,000 Child care workers, 1,228,000 Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, 1,205,000 Receptionists and information clerks, 1,168,000 First-line supervisors/managers of office and administrative support workers, 1,163,000 Managers, all other, 1,106,000 Accountants and auditors, 1,084,000 Teacher assistants, 921,000 Cooks, 831,000 Office clerks, general 821,000 Personal and home care aides, 789,000 The unemployment rate for all women was 8.1 percent and 10.3 percent for men in 2009. For Asian women it was 6.6 percent; white women, 7.3 percent; Hispanic women, 11.5 percent; and black women, 12.4 percent. The median weekly earnings of women who were full-time wage and salary workers was $657, or 80 percent of men’s $819. When comparing the median weekly earnings of persons aged 16 to 24, young women earned 93 percent of what young men earned ($424 and $458, respectively). The 20 occupations with the highest median weekly earnings among women who were full-time wage and salary workers in 2009 were-- Pharmacists, $1,475 Lawyers, $1,449 Computer and information systems managers, $1,411 Computer software Chief executives, $1,553 Engineers, $1,311 Physicians and surgeons, $1,228 Computer programmers, $1,182 Management analysts, $1,177 Computer scientists and systems analysts, $1,167 Occupational therapists, $1,155 Speech-language pathologists, $1,148 General and operations managers, $1,110 Education administrators, $1,093 Psychologists, $1,091 Personal financial advisors, $1,088 Human resources managers, $1,072 Marketing sales managers, $1,052 Managers, all other, $1,037 Registered nurses, $1,035 Network systems and data communications analysts, $1,032 Women accounted for 51 percent of all workers in the high-paying management, professional, and related occupations. Here is just a sample of these occupations where women were the larger percentage of those employed:

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