Women accounted for about 98% of August’s reported payroll gain

BLS figures show women’s payroll employment rose by 158,000 against an overall gain of 162,000. That is a share of net growth, not all hiring.

By Stat Crux Report1 min read

Published September 6, 2026 at 4:07 PM ET

U.S. Department of Labor headquarters and sign in Washington, D.C., May 2005. — Ed Brown / Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. May 4, 2005; archive photograph. Higher-resolution original. · Image source

Women accounted for about 158,000 of the 162,000 U.S. nonfarm payroll jobs added in August, or roughly 98 percent of the net increase. Bureau of Labor Statistics Table B-5 shows women’s payroll employment rising from 79.591 million in July to 79.749 million in August. The difference is 158,000; dividing it by the overall gain gives about 97.5 percent, which rounds to 98 percent.

The September 4 employment report said food services and drinking places added 59,000 jobs and local government education added 42,000. Together, those categories contributed about 62 percent of the total monthly net increase. Manufacturing added 16,000 jobs, health care added 13,000, and information employment fell by 23,000.

The gender split measures the change between monthly payroll totals. It does not mean that 98 percent of all people hired in August were women: hiring and departures both affect the net result. Subtracting women’s gain from the overall increase leaves about 4,000 net jobs for men. These are preliminary, seasonally adjusted estimates, not a count of individual hiring decisions.

BLS also raised its estimates for June and July payroll growth by a combined 55,000. Revisions illustrate why a single month’s figures should be read as an initial estimate rather than a fixed long-term pattern.