U.S. JOBS MARKET GAP SHRINKS

A tight U.S. labour market and booming demand in industries with an abundance of female workers is drawing more women back into the workforce, helping to shrink the long-standing gap in the labour participation rate between men and women to the narrowest on record. Other parts of a report released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that the longest economic expansion on record is leading to improvements for workers who are often neglected. Not only did the unemployment rate for African-Americans drop to a record low of 5.5 per cent in August, it narrowed to being 1.62 times the white unemployment rate, the smallest gap ever. The share of women aged 25 to 54 who either have jobs or are looking for work rose by a full percentage point in August to 76.3 per cent. The gain helped to lift the overall labour participation rate to 63.2 per cent.