Puerto Rico reports highest female workforce participation in 45 years.

Labor Secretary María del Pilar Vélez Casanova

By THE STAR STAFF

The government of Puerto Rico on Sunday announced significant progress for women in the labor force, marking the highest level of female participation recorded in 45 years. According to a new study from the Department of Labor and Human Resources (DTRH by its initials in Spanish), women represented 45.2% of the workforce in 2025, the highest share since 1980.

The report, titled “Women’s Participation in the Puerto Rico Labor Force: Calendar Year 2025,” was prepared by the DTRH’s Auxiliary Secretariat for Statistics and Publications. It draws on data from the Worker Group Survey, which collects monthly information from a scientific sample of 3,200 households.

Gov. Jenniffer González Colón highlighted the findings as evidence of progress, while acknowledging the challenges that remain.

“This progress is an achievement we aim to sustain by promoting public policies that reduce the gaps and inequalities women still face,” the governor said. “Our administration is advancing training initiatives and talent retention efforts through the creation of more jobs, many of them highly paid thanks to our strategy of bringing more manufacturing to the island. This same study identifies that household responsibilities remain the main reason why nearly one million women remain outside the labor force. That is why we are creating programs such as ACUDEN ContiGO to expand access to child care and extended school-age care services.”

Labor Secretary María del Pilar Vélez Casanova noted that the data shows a shifting demographic and educational profile among working women.

“Today we see a more prepared, diverse female population with an increasingly solid presence in strategic sectors of our labor market,” Vélez Casanova said. “These advances are the result of the efforts of thousands of women and of public policies aimed at expanding opportunities.”

Workforce numbers show broad gains

In absolute terms, the female labor force reached 560,000 women in 2025. Of those, 531,000 were employed, representing 45.4% of total employment on the island. The female labor force participation rate rose to 38.0%, reversing years of decline. Unemployment among women dropped to 5.2%, the lowest since 1980, with only 29,000 women recorded as unemployed.

The gender gap in labor force participation also narrowed significantly, decreasing from 32.9 to 14.9 percentage points.

The report shows that 73.1% of employed women are between the ages of 25 and 54, though participation has also increased among women aged 55 and older -- signaling broader demographic shifts.

Educational attainment among working women continued to improve: 70.8% have postsecondary studies, and nearly half hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Service and commerce sectors remain the largest sources of female employment, accounting for 66.5% of positions. More than half of women work in professional, administrative, or support occupations.

Self-employment also grew, with 59,000 women working independently in 2025, indicating diversification in how women integrate into the labor market.

Socially, the composition of employed women has shifted: 45.6% are single, surpassing married women (41.1%) for the first time.

Despite the progress, the study identifies substantial areas for improvement. An estimated 915,000 women remain outside the labor force. Household responsibilities account for 47.9% of those cases, followed by retirement (23.5%) and academic studies (11.9%). Women ages 20 to 24 recorded the highest unemployment rate within the female population.

Women’s Advocate Astrid Piñeiro Vázquez welcomed the report’s findings and emphasized the need for continued action. “It is a great source of satisfaction to validate through these data that female participation has reached its highest level since 1980,” Piñeiro Vázquez said. “This historic progress, including the lowest female unemployment rate recorded at 5.2%, validates the public policies promoting equity and economic development. We reaffirm our commitment to breaking barriers, especially for the many women who remain outside the workforce due to household responsibilities.”