The long-term economic growth trend in Canada will slow because female participation in the workforce has probably crested, says Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economist Peter Jarrett. 
“We have been living off the fact that steadily more young women were entering” the labor force, said Jarrett, who covers Canada for the Paris-based OECD. “That process looks very much to me like it’s over,” he said, calling the trend “disconcerting.
”The percentage of women ages 25 to 54 who are working or looking for work — the so-called participation rate — was 81.8 percent in April, down from 82.9 percent as recently as December 2012, according to the federal statistics agency.
While that share had risen from 52.0 percent in 1976 when Statistics Canada records began, it has been little changed for about a decade. Female participation remains below the 90.3 percent level for men in the same age group, Statistics Canada figures show. It also remains above the 73.9 percent rate for U.S. women in the same age group.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at To Work or Not to Work? Women’s Dilemna Cuts Growth: Jobs – Bloomberg.
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