In the mid-1990s, the United States ranked in the upper tier for prime-age women’s participation, but since then participation by women has advanced rapidly in many countries while it has declined slightly in the United States. Now the United States is sixth lowest among these 34 countries. Researchers have investigated numerous possible reasons for the decline in primeage participation.
Among men, the drop in participation is much sharper for those with only a high school education or less. The drop for women is also sharper for those who are high school educated. This pattern is consistent with the idea that a modern economy demands ever-higher skills, and that workers without those skills are being left behind (figure 9).