In September, 865,000 women over 20 left the labor force in a single month. I've struggled to explain just how large and shocking that number is.

So I thought I'd try some comparisons:

The total number of workers in the coal industry is 50,000.
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_212100.htm

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The total number of workers in motor vehicle manufacturing is 234,000 (motor vehicles), 164,000 (motor vehicle body), and 602,000 (motor vehicle parts), or 1,000,000.

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https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_336100.htm
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_336200.htm
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_336300.htm

The total number of postal workers is 497,000.

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/employees-since-1926.pdf

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So the drop in one month in women's labor force was 17 coal industries, just under the auto industry, and 1.5 postal services.

These aren't very fair comparisons (a single industry versus just under half the workforce), but I think it's helpful to illustrate relative size.
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And of course, draw parallels for you.

The U.S. can step up to help workers who they think are valuable.
https://www.thebalance.com/auto-industry-bailout-gm-ford-chrysler-3305670

And subsidize industries that we think are important
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/02/Global-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Remain-Large-An-Update-Based-on-Country-Level-Estimates-46509
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In October, 480,000 women over 20 entered the workforce, and we find out tomorrow how the seesaw of entry and exit of women this recession continued.

So far, we are down 2.2 million women since this time last year.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm

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