Staff Reports
A fresh analysis of federal jobs data is getting people talking: nearly all net payroll job gains since President Donald Trump returned to office have come from women, according to a counting method highlighted by the Daily Wire and credited to Mike Konczal, Vice President of Policy and Research at the Economic Security Project. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest report also showed 162,000 jobs added in August, with hiring concentrated in industries that employ large numbers of women. That combination makes for a headline-grabbing trend — and for some predictable political spin.
What the numbers show
The headline math is simple: Konczal’s tally, based on BLS payroll tables, finds women’s nonfarm payroll employment up by roughly 765,000 since December 2024 while men’s payroll employment is down about 6,000. The BLS jobs report backs up the recent hiring pattern: total nonfarm payrolls rose by 162,000 in August and the unemployment rate held at 4.1 percent. The report also shows the unemployment rate for adult women at 3.5 percent and for adult men at 4.0 percent. Credit the raw data to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the analysis to Konczal and the Daily Wire for putting these pieces together.
Why this happened
Don’t read a political manifesto into one simple tally. The gains come mostly from a few female‑heavy industries. Food services and drinking places added about 59,000 jobs in August, and local government education added about 42,000. Manufacturing added jobs too, but the big swings in sectors that hire many women drive the sex‑split on payroll totals. In short: where the hiring happens matters as much as who is hired.
Method and caveats you should know
Important caveats here: the women‑vs‑men payroll series is a derived BLS estimate, not a direct headcount in every month. The CES women series estimates the share of workers who are women and applies that ratio to total payrolls, and periodic benchmark revisions can shift totals after the fact. Payroll (establishment) and household surveys can move differently in the same month. Also, these numbers say nothing about pay, hours, or whether the new jobs are full‑time or part‑time — separate BLS tables cover wages and hours. Average hourly earnings did tick up 0.3 percent in August and are up about 3.1 percent year‑over‑year, but that’s a different part of the report.
Bottom line
Here’s the conservative take: the economy is producing jobs, and many of those new jobs are held by women. That’s good news and worth noting, even if the left wants to wrap it in partisan storytelling. But good raw headlines are only the start. Policymakers should push for more high‑quality, higher‑paying work that lasts, and officials should be clear about methods and revisions so voters know what the numbers truly mean. If the economy can keep delivering jobs and raise pay, that will outshine the usual headline wars — and that’s the kind of result people actually care about at the kitchen table.
