What share of US women and men actually have a job?
Employment as a share of the whole population aged 15 and over — the measure that does not depend on who is looking for work.
Women
54
% of population aged 15+
Men
64.2
% of population aged 15+
Difference
10.2
percentage points higher for men
Figures for 2025, the most recent year in the series.
The shaded band is the gap, measured in % of population aged 15+. It was widest in 1991 at
17, narrowest in 2009 at
10.1, and stood at 10.2 in 2025.
Series runs 1991–2025, 35 years with both sexes reported.
What this number counts
Employment to population ratio: everyone aged 15 and over who did any paid work, as a percentage of the total population of that sex aged 15 and over.
The denominator is the whole population, not the labour force. That makes it the cleanest of the three employment measures for comparing two groups directly.
What this number does not say
Any paid work counts. One hour a week and sixty hours a week both register as employed, so this says nothing about hours or earnings.
It does not count unpaid work, which is distributed very unevenly between the sexes.
Age structure moves it — retirees sit in the denominator, so an ageing population lowers the ratio on its own.
It is a modelled ILO estimate, not a direct count. The International Labour Organization fills gaps between national surveys with a statistical model, so single-year movements are less meaningful than the shape of the series.
Source
World Bank World Development Indicators. Compiled by the World Bank from UN agencies, the ILO and national statistical sources. Indicators SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.FE.ZS · SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.MA.ZS.