However, our analysis shows that this does not appear to be the primary factor driving the increase in their employment, at least through this phase of the recovery. For younger workers, the strength of the recovery has driven increased participation, pointing primarily to a cyclical explanation for the increase as opposed to a structural change.
While for women, increased participation is part of a longer-term trend driven by a “cohort effect”. Previous research has shown that female participation depends on both age and cohort effects. The age effect describes the feature of all labour markets where a woman aged 30 is more likely to participate in the labour force than a woman aged 20.