Economic Letter

A substantial and unexpected rise in women’s labor force participation rates over the past few years has been a key factor spurring rapid labor force growth. In particular, Hispanic women have made a disproportionately large contribution to post-pandemic growth in prime-age women’s participation rates. Analysis shows that this group’s increase was driven by both a rise in labor market participation over the life cycle within generational cohorts and notably higher participation rates among younger generations than older generations’ participation when they were the same age.