It turns out that almost everyone knows a woman who helps an unemployed man. That is precisely what a Federal Reserve economist recently stated—not as a social observation, but as a documented labor market conclusion. A measurable economic reality with its own data set, trend line, and now, apparently, its own name has emerged from what was once discussed in hushed conversations among friends and carried a certain embarrassment on both sides. The boyfriend who stays at home. It was once a joke. A statistic now.
In the United States, women are employed in more payroll positions than men as of early 2026. There have only been two instances of this, both just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and briefly during the Great Recession. In both cases, the gap reversed and the old order reemerged. Both of those reversals have been thoroughly examined by Laura Ullrich, a former regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond who currently oversees economic research at Indeed’s Hiring Lab.
| The Stay-at-Home Boyfriend Economy — Key Facts & Research Profile | |
|---|---|
| Topic | Gender labor shift — women outnumbering men in US workforce (2026) |
| How many times this has happened | 3rd time ever (previously: Great Recession 2008, pre-COVID) |
| Jobs shift (past 12 months) | Men lost 142,000 net jobs; women gained 298,000 |
| New jobs (Feb 2024–Feb 2026) | 1.2 million added — two-thirds went to women |
| Male labor force participation rate | Down from 86.7% (1948) to 67.2% today; dropped 2pts since pre-COVID |
| Female labor force participation rate | Up from 32% (1948) to 57.2% today; dropped only 0.6pts since pre-COVID |
| Housework gap (key finding) | Men’s housework time unchanged since 1970s, regardless of who earns more |
| Key researcher | Corinne Low — Wharton economist, author of Having It All |
| Labor data source | Laura Ullrich, Indeed Hiring Lab / Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond |
| Census Bureau finding | Couples misreported earnings when wife out-earned husband — husband’s income inflated by 2.9%, wife’s deflated by 1.5% |
| Historical origin of breadwinner norm | Industrial Revolution — work moved outside the home; domestic labor devalued |
| Reference | Fortune — The Stay-at-Home Boyfriend Is Now an Economic Trend |
Regarding this third instance, she comes to a different conclusion: the change is structural rather than cyclical. “This seems to be more of a long-term decline that’s led to more of a permanent shift,” she told Fortune, “or at least semi-permanent.” Men’s employment decreased by a net 142,000 over the previous 12 months, while women’s employment increased by 298,000. Two-thirds of the 1.2 million new jobs created between February 2024 and February 2026 were held by women. These figures don’t reflect a brief uptick brought on by a pandemic or recession. They give a direction.
Although the male labor force participation rate has been declining for decades—from 86.7% in 1948 to 67.2% today—it has recently accelerated in a particular way. The male rate was 69.2% prior to COVID. Currently, it stands at 67.2%. In contrast, the female rate decreased by only 0.6 points during the same time frame. The main reason the gap is closing is because fewer men are entering, not because more women are. Ullrich observes that compared to their fathers at the same age, younger men today are less likely to be employed. Some are receiving longer-term parental support.
Partners help others. Once subtly embarrassing, especially for the men involved, the cultural framework surrounding both arrangements has significantly softened. This begs the question, “What happens inside a household when the old economic logic stops applying?” which cannot be adequately addressed by labor data alone.
Corinne Low, an economist at Wharton, has spent years attempting to provide a precise response. Her research, which she details in her book Having It All, leads to an uncomfortable conclusion: women do not perform less housework when they make more money. Whether the woman in the household makes more or less than her partner, the amount of time men spend performing household chores has essentially not changed since the 1970s.
The traditional economic theory held that as women’s incomes increased, the domestic scales would inevitably begin to balance because earning power generates negotiating power. They haven’t. Low uses a real-world example from her research: an Uber driver and a nurse.
The woman makes four times as much per hour as the man, but she still does more work at home while he works more hours for pay. Low contends that if he stayed at home, removed the kids from daycare, and allowed her to take on an additional nursing shift, the household’s math would actually improve. However, that is not the case. According to her, the programming goes beyond money.
Low’s work is illuminated by a study conducted by the US Census Bureau. When surveyors asked heterosexual married couples about their earnings and compared the responses to real tax records, they discovered something startling: both partners misreported when the wife made more money than the husband.
The average inflation of husbands’ incomes was 2.9 percentage points. The income of wives decreased by 1.5 points. In essence, couples were subtly altering reality to maintain a delusion that the man was still the main provider, or at least sufficiently close to it. There is a history to that behavior. Gender and economic historians trace the breadwinner norm’s hardening during the Industrial Revolution, when domestic work was reclassified as something other than work and paid work moved outside the home.
The idea that a wife’s proper position was financial dependence was solidified by the marriage bars of the early 20th century, which were employer policies requiring women to quit their jobs upon marriage. Those bars have long since disappeared. Their encoded expectations are turning out to be far more resilient.
The fact that economic roles are changing more quickly than cultural ones is what Low finds most concerning about the current situation. Higher-paying, male-dominated jobs in technology and related fields are being replaced by AI. The data shows that women are entering primary earner roles at a rate never seen before. However, the division of labor in the home—cooking, laundry, knowing where toilet paper is, and identifying the pediatrician—isn’t changing to reflect this.
Low notes that compared to stay-at-home moms a generation ago, working mothers now spend more time with their kids. Although men have become more involved in parenting, the difference between the contributions of fathers and mothers has actually grown rather than shrunk due to the significant increase in overall parenting time. The headline figure appears to be a step forward. The underlying framework is more obstinate.
Observing all of this build up gives the impression that the nation is undergoing a true role reassignment that no one has quite figured out how to discuss openly. As women’s earning power increases, their tolerance for unfair domestic arrangements is decreasing. The number of marriages is declining. The number of births is declining. Although the stay-at-home boyfriend is no longer a social embarrassment, the new arrangement hasn’t been fully worked out yet.
Without a finished design, it’s a transition. The economy has changed. The family still hasn’t caught up. Until it does, the women who carry both sides of that equation are, in Low’s words, playing the career game on the highest level of difficulty—that is, without any cheat codes or the behind-the-scenes assistance that made it appear simple for everyone else.