A growing share of mothers with young children in America are leaving the workforce.

Erasing gains made after the COVID-19 pandemic when working remotely became more common.

Economics correspondent Paul Salman reports on the impact.

Here, I'll put it up.

Nicoletta Barbera always saw herself as a working mother.

She and husband Stephen worked for the U.S. Institute of Peace funded by Congress while raising two sons in Washington, D.C., until March.

Overnight and with barely any warning, almost the entirety of the workforce of the United States Institute of Peace was laid off,

kind of on mass.

Dozed, including both Barbera and her husband.

The rug was really kind of taken out from under us because we not only went from two incomes

to zero incomes, we went from having a family health insurance policy for us and our two young

children to no health insurance.

Even moms who haven't been axed are leaving their jobs, especially in the back to the office federal government.

Those positions are predominantly held by women, and in particular women with children,

who often are willing to forego wages in the private sector for more flexible

work environments, work environments that historically the federal government has provided.

Take one that you could eat. But now the share of working mothers with children under five is falling,

says economist Misty Heganis. We've seen this continual perpetual decline in mother's labor force participation.

The first half of 2025, it shrunk by three percentage points.

A lot of good stuff.

In the pandemic era, remote flex time schedules helped push women's participation up to a record

78 percent.

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