For August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 235,000 jobs gained nationwide, with hospitals contributing 3,200 jobs to that total. However, only 11.9 percent of the 235,000 jobs added last month went to women, reports the National Women's Law Center.
Women gained 28,000 jobs in August while men gained 207,000, according to the law center. Within the education and health services sector, women lost 16,000 jobs in August, while men gained 51,000.
There has also been a decline in the number of women looking for jobs. A total of 41,000 women aged 20 and older left the labor force last month, meaning they are not working or looking for work, the law center reports. This compares to 139,000 men aged 20 and older who joined the labor force in August.
Overall, the law center reports, women's labor force participation fell to 57.4 percent in August, compared to 57.5 percent the month prior.
"This was not a good month for jobs," Jasmine Tucker, director of research at the law center, told CNBC. "But the pandemic has made the market really volatile, so we should expect the economy to change month to month."
Ms. Tucker attributed the August numbers for women partially to the delta variant of the coronavirus making it more challenging for working mothers to rejoin the workforce, with schools shut down and not enough child care available. She also told CNBC the expiration of federal unemployment benefits could exacerbate unemployment for women.
At August's rate, the law center projects women will need nearly nine straight years of job gains to recover the nearly 3 million net jobs they have lost since February 2020.