Women in the Skilled Trades and in Other Manual Occupations. Facts on Working Women No. 90-5.

This short profile of the trends in the employment of women in skilled trades and other manual occupations during the 5-year period between 1983 and 1988 shows that the number of women in these occupations rose only modestly. Three tables chart the total numbers of persons employed in the trades by sex for the years 1983 and 1988; persons employed in the trades, by sex and detailed occupations for 1983 and 1988, and total numbers of women in apprenticeships in 1978, 1983, 1988 and first quarter 1989. Some of the trends noted are the following: (1) the 1.2 million women employed as precision production, craft, and repair workers represented only 8.7 percent of such workers in 1988 compared with 8.1 percent in 1983; (2) 26 percent of other manual workers were women, about the same as in 1983; (3) in 1988 only about 2 percent of employed women were in the skilled trades, about the same proportion as in 1983; (4) manufacturing industries had the highest proportion of women in the skilled trades; (5) women were more likely to work as operators, fabricators, and laborers in the professional services industries, where they represented half of the persons employed in such occupations; (6) women in the trades earned 68 percent of the earnings of similarly employed men in 1988; (7) 20 percent of women employed in the skilled trades were Black or Hispanic; and (8) the number of women in apprenticeship programs increased from 3.1 percent in fiscal 1978 to 7 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 1978. (KC)