More than 455,000 women left the U.S. workforce in 2025.
The number is making headlines because it can’t be fully explained by layoffs or retirements. Instead, the decline is being fueled by mid-career women who are voluntarily opting out of the workforce at a record pace.
From January to June 2025, workforce participation for mothers of young children fell nearly three percentage points—the largest mid-year drop in more than 40 years—after three straight years of gains.
The trend, coined the “Great Exit,” is a red flag that something significant is happening, raising a lot of questions as companies navigate the dynamic current employment landscape. What is driving the decline? What are the implications? And what can employers do to reverse the trend and retain valuable employees?
Why are women leaving the workforce?
Caregiving responsibilities are a determining factor.
Beyond attrition from layoffs and retirements, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 total of women leaving the workforce includes a significant amount of voluntary departures. Within that voluntary population, 42% report that caregiving responsibilities drove their decision to exit the workforce.
With the majority of family caregiving responsibilities assumed by women, the Great Exit reflects a breaking point where women are unable to sustain the dual roles of employee and caregiver.
Leaving a job isn’t the only indicator that caregiving pressures are reshaping the American workforce. Caregiving-related leaves now make up 6% of all leave claims, up from 2.4% in 2020, with today’s leaves lasting nearly four times longer.
A convergence of factors is intensifying caregiving pressures.
The child care crisis: when work doesn’t pay
For many working Americans, the cost of child care requires an increasing share of the household budget. According to Care.com’s 2026 Cost of Care Report, parents are spending about 20% of their annual income on child care.
Beyond cost, access to child care is often challenging. Nationwide, the gap between child care supply and demand creates a sizeable gap, with 28% of children without access to care within a reasonable distance. The gap increases to 31% in rural areas. As a result, with demand outpacing supply, daycare and preschool costs have increased twice as fast as inflation since August 2024.
With six in 10 working moms reporting that they feel overwhelmed when juggling caregiving and career, it’s not surprising that when weighing the financials and their wellbeing, more are choosing to step away from the workforce.
The sandwich generation and the growing complexity of care
Child care challenges alone don’t explain the Great Exit. Nearly one in four U.S. adults is now part of the “sandwich generation,” simultaneously caring for children and aging parents. Among adults in their 40s, that number jumps to more than half.
As women account for 60% of sandwich caregivers, the dual responsibilities of child care and senior care often occur in the middle of their careers when professional expectations are highest.
At the same time, senior care has become more complex and more sustained. As people live longer with chronic conditions, family members are increasingly responsible for coordinating care that looks less like occasional help and more like a part-time job – scheduling appointments, managing medications, responding to emergencies, and filling gaps when formal care falls through.
Research on unpaid senior care shows that daily caregiving reduces women’s labor-force participation by 2-4 percentage points and reduces weekly work hours, with the largest impact on women in already vulnerable economic positions.
Overall, more than one-third of parents report hiring senior care help, but 45% say they still don’t have enough help. Parents with care responsibilities beyond child care, including senior care and pet care, say they spend an additional 17% of their income on top of the 20% allotted for child care.
Research highlights the challenge of balancing caregiving and employment. Sandwich caregivers, particularly women with young children and those providing high-intensity adult care, are among the least likely to be employed and, if employed, work the fewest hours.
Limited flexibility accelerates exits
Return-to-office (RTO) mandates are also a factor in women’s decisions about caregiving and careers. In many cases, the flexible schedules and remote work options that became more common during the pandemic made it easier for many women to juggle caregiving and job responsibilities.
Now, as employers tighten policies around where and when work gets done, many caregivers are losing an important flexibility buffer that made balancing care and work more manageable.
For caregivers, the issue isn’t resistance to in-person work. It’s logistics. School drop-offs, backup child care gaps, and senior care routines don’t disappear when work flexibility does. When restrictive schedules replace flexible ones, something has to give, and increasingly, that something is women’s participation in the workforce.
Workforce participation data shows a trend linking the increase in RTO mandates to women leaving the workforce. Between 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, the share of Fortune 500 companies requiring full-time in-office work went from 13% to 24%. In 2025, the workforce participation rate of women ages 25 to 44 with a child under five dropped nearly three percentage points after growing steadily between 2022 and January 2025.
Beyond RTO policies, women working in roles that have to be done in person, such as healthcare, retail, and food service, never benefited from the increased flexibility in recent years. In addition, lower-income and hourly workers are overrepresented among women leaving the workforce, due in part to limited flexibility at work. When caregiving demands intensify, women in lower-wage and hourly jobs are more likely to reduce hours, move to less secure work, or exit the labor force entirely compared to women in higher‑paying, more flexible roles.
What are the implications of the Great Exit?
A structural shift is underway in the workforce with immediate and long-term consequences for employees and employers alike.
For women navigating caregiving responsibilities, the decision to step back from work is a calculation—often made under pressure—about what is sustainable when care demands collide with work. For employers, these individual calculations aggregate to impact productivity, talent pipelines, and business financials.
Employees: fewer options, higher tradeoffs, and stalled careers
Caregiving stress has a definitive impact on employee well-being. According to Care.com’s 2026 Cost of Care Report, 78% of working parents say caregiving demands have negatively affected their physical health, and 89% report feeling burnt out.
For many women, the strain ties directly to career decisions. Six in ten working moms report that caregiving pressures have dimmed their career ambitions. In the short term, the pressures may translate into a series of tradeoffs, such as turning down advancement opportunities, limiting work availability, or remaining in roles that prioritize predictability over growth. Over time, these decisions compound. Career momentum slows, visibility declines, and earnings flatten.
As caregiving demands increase, so do career tradeoffs, frequently with longer-term consequences. Sixty-one percent of working mothers and 67% of sandwich generation caregivers say they have considered leaving their jobs due to the financial, mental, and emotional cost of care. In addition to the short-term financial impact, women who exit the workforce for caregiving reasons face reduced lifetime earnings, diminished retirement savings, and a more difficult path back into comparable roles when caregiving responsibilities ease.
Employers: hidden turnover, depleted talent pools, and culture costs
For employers, the implications of the Great Exit extend far beyond headcount. Caregiving-driven attrition often happens under the radar, making it easy to underestimate its impact. What often appears as isolated challenges – increased absenteeism, declines in team productivity, or higher-than-expected turnover rates – aren’t always linked to the higher-level workforce trends.
Employee caregivers may remain on a company’s payroll while disengaging, reducing hours, or taking unplanned time off or extended leaves. Others leave their jobs, but their reasons don’t necessarily surface in exit interviews. The result is a form of hidden turnover that erodes productivity, institutional knowledge, and diversity.
According to an analysis of unpaid caregivers of older adults, nearly one in four reported caregiving-related absenteeism or presenteeism in a given month. As a result, their work productivity dropped by about one-third, which equated to an average of $5,600 in lost productivity per employee annually.
Along with short-term productivity and performance implications, noticeable gaps in the talent pool for future leadership roles are created when mid-career women choose to step back from career advancement or leave the workforce altogether. Succession pipelines narrow, leadership talent pools get smaller, and long-term workforce diversity gains are jeopardized.
Replacing experienced employees and leaders also comes at a financial cost for employers. SHRM estimates that every time a business replaces an employee, it costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary when recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity are factored in.
In addition to bottom-line costs, the way organizations support caregivers has implications for employee satisfaction, company culture, and the overall brand. Organizations that recognize the realities of caregiving and provide support through both formal benefits programs and informal day-to-day actions can differentiate themselves as employers of choice for existing and prospective employees.
What can employers do to reverse the Great Exit?
When organizations provide caregiving benefits, employee caregivers report reduced stress, better work-life balance, and higher quality of life. They also have 45% higher productivity and 40% lower absenteeism.
Offering caregiving support through the workplace is a critical workforce strategy that addresses overarching employee health, engagement and productivity, and talent development and retention objectives. A caregiving benefit strategy is also essential for supporting women through their peak caregiving years, enabling them to balance care and work responsibilities more effectively.
5 steps to help women remain in the workforce
As employers seek to mitigate the impact of the Great Exit, there are five key actions they can take to design and deliver caregiving support that makes a tangible difference for employees and the company.
1. Understand your team’s caregiving needs.
A meaningful family care benefits strategy starts by assessing your workforce and their caregiving responsibilities. Because caregiving stress and support gaps can go unnoticed, it’s important to monitor absences, leaves, and exit interviews to identify patterns and potential caregiving-related issues.
Leverage pulse surveys and other listening channels to help surface caregiving challenges that employees may not feel comfortable discussing with their managers.
2. Build in flexibility where you can
Flexibility is invaluable for busy working moms and sandwich generation caregivers. Create clear guidelines and expectations for time off, scheduling changes, and hybrid work opportunities.
Most importantly, ensure that the guidelines are communicated and applied consistently. Caregivers appreciate clear guidance and predictability over ad hoc negotiations that can leave them feeling penalized.
3. Offer a mix of caregiving benefits and support tailored for your workforce.
Having access to caregiving benefits to help navigate care logistics, gaps, and costs makes a significant difference in an employee’s well-being and how they engage at work. Fifty-two percent of employee caregivers say access to caregiving benefits improves their work-life balance.
Based on your team’s needs, consider offering a tailored mix of support, such as:
- Trusted caregiver resources: Access to a comprehensive network of screened and vetted caregiving resources relieves the time-consuming task of coordinating care.
- Expert guidance: Offer support that includes access to expert specialists who can help working moms and sandwich generation caregivers assess their needs and provide customized referrals for caregiving options.
- Backup care: Provide access to backup child care and senior care to help employees solve unexpected caregiving gaps and reduce absenteeism.
- Self care: Encourage caregivers to take time to recharge by offering resources and discounts focused on self care.
4. Equip managers to support caregivers.
Front-line managers are the best way to ensure caregiving benefits are visible and utilized. Provide training to help managers identify caregiving needs, have empathetic conversations with employees, and direct employees to available resources.
When leaders communicate their understanding and support, employee caregivers are more likely to seek help earlier rather than disengaging or resigning down the line.
5. Track, measure, and refine.
Identify and monitor key metrics, such as employee engagement, satisfaction, productivity, and retention, to measure the impact of your caregiving benefits strategy – and monitor evolving needs.
Looking ahead, women’s ability to stay in the workforce will increasingly depend on the support available to them. Employers have an opportunity to play a meaningful role by providing resources and benefits designed to help women sustain career momentum while balancing caregiving responsibilities. Explore CareBenefits or connect with our team to see what care support can look like at your organization.
