New labor data show women are capturing most recent job gains, largely because healthcare and service industries continue expanding. The trend matters in California, where Latinas represent a growing share of the healthcare workforce and family income earners.
According to the latest employment report from the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 170,000 non-farm payroll jobs were added in May. With job gains occurring in leisure and hospitality, local government and healthcare.
Based on Labor Department data, NPR said women have filled nearly 17 times as many jobs as men since the Trump administration’s second term.
Shelly Lundberg, an economics professor at UC Santa Barbara, believes this is driven by a strong healthcare sector combined with some male-dominated industries not doing as well.
“There is a combination of the current big increases in tariffs and even more so the uncertainty of tariff policy. So, I think manufacturing industries are delaying potential expansions. They are delaying sort of new construction of facilities,” said Lundberg.
While women have filled more jobs than men recently, Professor Lundberg said there is still more work to do for women in the workforce. According to recent Census Bureau data, women working full time, year-round earn 81 cents for every dollar that men earn.
“There is still a lot of work to do. And there’s a lot of work in economics recently looking at more sort of subtle forms of bias treatment of women in particular workplaces, showing that treatment is just very different,” said Professor Lundberg.
When it comes to the healthcare sector, Galindo believes societal norms also play a role in why men may not consider nursing or other jobs in the industry.
“How I grew up, men and women had like a certain role. I feel like a lot of families will belittle like someone else’s son. Like, why are you being a nurse? Why not, like, a lawyer or a doctor or something higher up in the hierarchy,” said Galindo.
At Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, Arthur Iudice, who works with nursing students, said highlighting the many different career pathways could help.
“In the hospital setting, we hire EMTs, paramedics, CNAs that can advance their careers and have a pipeline into nursing, if that’s their path. But besides nursing, we have radiology, respiratory case management, a lot of different avenues that, you know, anyone can do it,” said Iudice, associate chief nursing officer at Los Robles.
At Pepperdine, Galindo has started a men’s nursing club called Men in Nursing Alliance. It is a subgroup within the Nursing Student Association that provides support and community for male nursing students.
He said he believes societal norms are already starting to shift and hopes gender stereotypes continue to fade.
“It doesn’t matter what gender you are because anyone could accomplish what they want in whatever field they choose to be,” Galindo said.
He hopes to see more men feel confident pursuing careers in healthcare.
