NEW YORK — More than 2.2 million women left the U.S. workforce since the start of the pandemic. Last fall, there were 1.6 million fewer mothers in the labor force than would be expected without COVID-19-related school closures, according to an analysis by Ernie Tedeschi, an economist at the investment banking advisory firm Evercore.
Working mothers have long faced "the second shift" – coming home to unpaid work that includes household labor and child care – and the pandemic has heightened the caregiver burden with children learning at home instead of returning to school.
