​Women’s Return to the Workforce Piles Momentum on a Hot Economy

American women are staging a return to the workforce that is helping propel the economy in the face of high inflation and rising interest rates.

Women have gained more jobs than men for four straight months, including in January’s hiring surge, pushing them to hold more than 49.8% of all nonfarm jobs. Female workers last edged higher than men on U.S. payrolls in late 2019, before the pandemic sent nearly 12 million women out of jobs, compared with 10 million men. 

The onset of Covid-19 and social-distancing measures in early 2020 struck female-dominated jobs in services that...