Overview of BLS Statistics on Women Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides extensive labor market data on women (and other worker groups) through its news releases, publications, and website. Users have access to data on women's employment, unemployment, and earnings by industry, occupation, education, age, marital status, and other characteristics. Data are also available on how women use their time and on workplace injuries and illnesses experienced by women. All of these data are also available for men.
Several types of BLS data on women are featured in the March 2011 Spotlight on Statistics, "Women at Work" at www.bls.gov/spotlight/2011/women/.
Much of the BLS data about women workers are collected through the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about 60,000 households. The CPS homepage is at www.bls.gov/cps/.
CPS data on women are summarized in two annual publications: Women in the Labor Force: A Databook and Highlights of Women's Earnings. Links to current and archived editions of these two publications can be found under the "Women" header on the CPS Demographics page at www.bls.gov/cps/demographics.htm#women.
Examples of CPS-based news releases that include data on women are:
Current Population Survey
data on employed women by industry are available monthly in Table A-23 of the BLS
periodical Employment and Earnings, which is available in two formats: www.bls.gov/web/cpseea23.pdf
and ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.cpseea23.txt.
Data on women also are available from other BLS
programs.
Each month the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program
surveys about 160,000 businesses and government agencies, representing
approximately 400,000 individual worksites, in order to provide
detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on
nonfarm payrolls. CES data on women employees on nonfarm payrolls by
industry are available monthly in Table B-4 of the BLS
periodical Employment and Earnings, which is at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb4.txt.
The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of
time that women and men spend doing various activities, such as work,
childcare, housework, watching television, volunteering, and socializing.
Data from ATUS are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/tus/.
The National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) are a set of surveys designed to
gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities
and other significant life events of several groups of women and men. The
NLS homepage is at www.bls.gov/nls/.
The Occupational Safety and Health Statistics program publishes
data each year on work-related fatalities and nonfatal injuries and
illnesses for various demographic groups, including women. See the
following news releases:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/osh2.pdf
Last Modified Date: May 28, 2010
