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As we all know, women have a huge stake in the current and future job market. According to the US Department of Labor, between 1998 and 2008, women's participation in the labor force is expected to increase by 15 percent, while men will only see an increase of about 10 percent. As a result, women will increase their share of the labor force from 46 to 48 percent.

The fastest labor force increase will be among Hispanic origin and Asian and other women, 48.8 and 45.7 percent, respectively. Black women will increase their participation by 21.1 percent and white women by 12.6 percent.

Employment in professional specialty occupations will increase the fastest (27 percent) and add the most jobs (5.3 million) between 1998-2008. Much of this growth is expected to be found among teachers, computer, mathematical and operations research occupations, and health assessment and treating occupations.

The group with the second fastest growth rate (22.2 percent) is technicians and related support occupations — only 1 million new jobs, however, are projected to be created. More than half of this projected job growth is expected among health technicians and technologists.

The number of executive, administrative, and managerial (EXAM) workers is projected to increase by 16.4 percent, or 2.4 million jobs. Most of these jobs will be found in various segments of the services sector-public education, hospitals, finance, insurance, and real estate, wholesale and retail trade, and transportation and public utilities. The number of self-employed EXAM workers is expected to increase by 361,000 — many of these workers run their own businesses or are self-employed consultants.                   

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