Page 43 - BusinessWest May 15, 2023
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    Changing Tides
State’s Workforce Has Become More Female, Older, More Diverse
The Massachusetts labor force has transformed in recent decades, with some of the biggest changes being the advancement of women, workers getting older and more diverse, and a divergence in labor-force par- ticipation rates based on levels of educational achievement.
Those are among the findings in “At a Glance: The Massa- chusetts Labor Force,” a policy brief written by Aidan Enright and published by Pioneer Institute, with data drawn from the institute’s new laboranalytics.org website.
“Decreasing labor-force participation rates among prime- aged (25-54) men and college-educated individuals may portend future labor shortages,” Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios said.
Nationally, the labor-force participation rate among 25- to 54-year-old men has fallen from 96.2% in 1948 to 88.8% last year.
Massachusetts had nearly 300,000 unfilled jobs in 2021. Inadequate daycare capacity, a mismatch between the skills needed for these jobs and the skills possessed by potential workers, immigration restrictions, and a spike in retirements during the pandemic are among the reasons economists cite for the shortage.
The number of individuals 65 and older in the Massachu- setts workforce rose dramatically in recent years, then pla- teaued and decreased from 2019-21, possibly due to retire- ments during the pandemic. Overall, the number of older workers more than doubled between 2007 and 2021, from 131,000 to 271,000.
The increase in older workers was particularly notable among women aged 55-64. Between 2007 and 2021, an additional 105,000 women in that age group entered the workforce, compared to 79,000 men.
According to the report, women are likely the reason why New England has a high labor-participation rate compared to other census regions, as women there have a higher rate than in all but one other region. New England men, on the other hand, had the fourth-highest rate out of nine total cen- sus regions in 2021.
The pandemic also affected women the most — their employment rate dropped 7.7% compared to 6% for men — even though their recovery from it has been quicker than for men. Women in Massachusetts also had a labor participation rate 4.5% higher in 2021 than women nationally. While men in that age range accounted for 79,000 additional workers to the workforce, women added 105,000.
Among other findings in the report:
• As a higher rate of older individuals remained in the workforce, the number of 16- to 19-year-old workers fell by 40,000 between 2019 and 2021.
• The labor-participation rate among non-whites has been higher than among white workers in every year since 2018. Minorities accounted for 18% of the Massachusetts labor force in 2007, rising to
 30% in 2021. The Massa- chusetts workforce is still less diverse than many
Workforce
Continued on page 44
“Decreasing labor- force participation rates among prime-aged (25- 54) men and college-educated individuals may portend future labor shortages.”
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