No recession? Thank women

REMOTE WORK ALLOWED ALYSON VELASQUEZ TO JUGGLE her demanding roles as a Wells Fargo talent recruiter and as a mother of two young children, including a son with special needs.

- JOANNE LIPMAN

The flexibility made sense both for her job, working with hiring managers across the country, and for her kids, ensuring she would be available for medical appointments and pickups. Remote work "is wonderful for working moms," she says.

Women like Velasquez have flooded into the full-time workplace over the past few years, spurred by flexible options combined with the rollback of pandemic-era school and day-care restrictions. The percentage of "prime age" working women-defined as ages 25 to 54-set a record in 2023, with moms of very young children leading the way.

These women have become the economy's secret weapon and one of the reasons why the recession that just about everyone predicted hasn't happened. Despite almost two straight years of dire forecasts, unemployment remains low, consumer spending has held steady, and productivity is on the rise. On Feb. 20, the Conference Board, which had been warning of a recession since July 2022, finally abandoned its call. "The strong labor force participation of women workers and the strength of the economy are intertwined," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told me in a recent email exchange. She attributes the employment gains for women in part to the child tax credit and other initiatives.

"But also important is the increased flexibility of the workplace that came as a result of the pandemic," she said. That flexibility has been key for women like Laura Podesta, who left her role as a CBS television correspondent in 2022, when her sons were 3 and 1. Her long hours in the studio, along with frequent travel, "made me start to reassess what I was committing to," she says. She pivoted to a hybrid position, overseeing communications for Fiverr, a freelance platform. "I decided to make the move in large part so I could work from home part of the week," she says.