Record-High Women’s Employment Meets the AI Stress Test
Record-High Women’s Employment Meets the AI Stress Test
Highlights
Women’s employment is reaching a new peak as women become a larger share of nonfarm labor than men, and women’s labor force participation continues to improve.
But as AI becomes more central in the workplace, many women risk being left behind due to gaps in education and training.
More women are entering skilled trades as the labor market shifts, finding growth opportunities in traditionally male-dominated fields.
The US labor market is reshaping itself around AI, just as women’s employment reaches record levels. But the risks of AI-induced changes to occupations are not evenly distributed amongst workers. Brookings Institution research, confirmed by Anthropic, identifies roughly 6.1 million U.S. workers who face both high AI exposure and low ability to adapt if they are displaced. About 86% of these workers are women, concentrated in clerical and administrative roles.
The data tells a diverging story: many women work in roles that are reported to be underprepared for AI disruption, but others are increasingly finding an alternative path to stable employment in skilled trades.
Women’s employment is growing
Women now make up the majority of nonfarm employees in the US, as women’s employment has expanded in recent decades and labor force participation recovered from the post-pandemic lull.
As of February data, there are 162,000 more women than men employed in nonfarm roles in the US.
Women’s labor force participation is hovering around 2019 levels, while men’s participation continues to lag.
But some AI risk is falling disproportionately on women
Women are taking up more space in the labor market, but many of the roles dominated by women could face more risks from AI changes in the future, and often come with fewer transferable skills to jump into other roles. At the same time, women are less likely than men to engage with AI tools, which could make transitions more difficult if they are not preparing now for the workforce of tomorrow. Women are in many of the most at-risk roles, but are less likely to see changes from AI in their fields and workplaces.
According to Brookings Institution research, 86% of the 6.1 million workers facing both high AI exposure AND low adaptive capacity are women.
Women are more likely than men to say they rarely or never use AI at work (56.9% vs. 45.7%).1
62.1% of women workers say they have seen no impact on jobs or hiring at their company due to AI, compared to 48.6% of men.1
Only 42.3% of recent female graduates say that AI has reduced job availability in their field, vs 52.8% of their male peers.2
Confidence in future opportunities suffers
Even though women are not engaging with AI tools as frequently as their male colleagues and often do not see AI impacting their companies yet, they are taking note of the challenges that lie ahead in the labor market. Women are more pessimistic about current opportunities and less confident that they could make a quick transition if push came to shove.
35.5% of women workers describe the current labor market as cold or frozen with limited opportunities, compared to 24.7% of men.1
Only 69.5% of women are confident they could find a comparable job within three months if they left their current role, versus 83.1% of men.1
This echoes the Brookings research, which finds that women are more likely to be in occupations that lack adaptive capacity. Less confidence in finding a new job may reflect differences in training and skill development in their current role.
The training gap is expanding the problem
A reason why women might feel more negative about current job prospects could be rooted in the training gap between women and men that starts in the classroom and carries over into the workforce.
Only 14% of women in the workforce say they received extensive AI training from their employer, compared to 23.8% of men.1
18.7% of recent female grads report having AI training integrated into their curriculum, versus 28.6% of male recent grads.2
13.9% of recent female graduates say their school only focused on the risks of AI, not any professional use cases —over double the 5.9% rate for male graduates.2
Women are more likely to be trained on the ethical risks of AI, but less likely to implement the tools into their work than men. Education and training should be more balanced, with all students and workers gaining a solid understanding of both the risks and uses. With the status quo, the lack of formal training for women is leading to more self-learning burdens and less confidence in navigating future AI integrations.
Fewer than two-thirds (64.6%) of women workers feel confident in their ability to learn AI skills for their job, compared to 74.8% of men.1
Women are compensating by self-teaching: 54.4% are learning AI skills on their own vs. 41% of men, placing more of a responsibility on themselves to try and remain competitive in an ever-changing workplace landscape.1
The gap compounds quickly. Female graduates report lower earnings than their male peers and may enter the workforce less prepared.
Rising female graduates expected to earn 92% of what their male peers earn.3
In reality, recent female graduates earn just 80% of what recent male graduates earn — a median of $48,000 for women vs. $60,000 for men.2
73.7% of rising female graduates believe their major will be "very useful" for their career; only 50.3% still feel that way after graduating and entering the workforce.3, 2
But many women are finding new opportunities in traditionally male-dominated fields
As clerical and administrative work shows higher potential for AI disruption, skilled trades offer a different path for many women. An aging workforce and changes to net immigration point to more job opportunities in the skilled trades in the future. Women appear to be picking up on that, with employment numbers in traditionally male-dominated industries shifting meaningfully since 2019.
Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities4
Women's overall employment in the sector is up 31% since 2019.
Younger women are leading the charge: employment for women 24 and under is up 67%, compared to just 9.3% growth for young men since 2019.
Older women are making a career comeback: employment for women aged 65+ is up 59.5%, compared to 19% for men in the same age group.
Women's share of the sector has grown from 23.1% to 25.7% between 2019 and 2025.
Construction4
Women's employment up 16.5% since 2019.
Growth concentrated among mid-career women: employment for women aged 25-34 is up 32.2%, and for women aged 35-44 is up 21.7%.
Natural Resources and Mining4
Women's employment is up 16.3% since 2019.
Women's share of the sector is at 27.1% in 2025, up from 22.1% in 2019.
There is growing interest from emerging female talent to make the switch to skilled trades
Current employment numbers in the trades understate how many women want to make this move. ZipRecruiter data on female job seekers shows a large gap between where women currently work and what they are actively considering next.5 The younger generation seems to be making a small shift towards more female dominance in these fields as well.
In 2026, 3.2% of rising female grads are enrolled in engineering programs, up from 2.8% of rising female grads in 2025.3
Among recent female graduates, 8.6% are considering trade work such as electrician, HVAC, or construction as an alternative to a traditional corporate job. That compares to 14.8% of male graduates — a gap, but a much smaller one than exists in the workforce.2
Women's employment overall is at a record high heading into 2026, and labor force participation and nonfarm employment are growing faster than those of men. But without equitable education, resources, and training, many women may find themselves being left behind as the labor market shifts and roles evolve in the era of artificial intelligence. Some women are finding solace in the skilled trades, which could provide more job security and opportunities in tomorrow’s labor market. But without deliberate investment in education and upskilling by government agencies and employers, the burden to adapt may fall on women themselves.
Sources
ZipRecruiter surveyed 1,500 employed individuals across U.S. businesses of various sizes and industries from January 5-14, 2026 to learn about work and workplace trends.
ZipRecruiter surveyed 1,500 recent undergrad graduates across the U.S. from January 30 to March 15, 2026 to learn about trends as they begin their careers.
ZipRecruiter surveyed 1,500 rising undergrad graduates across the U.S. from January 30 to March 15, 2026 to learn about trends as they prepare for the workforce.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, 2019 vs 2025
ZipRecruiter surveyed 1,500 job seekers across the U.S. from February 7-23, 2026 to learn about the job search.