Women were more likely to quit their jobs than men in states where Omicron closed schools and daycares

• According to data from Gusto, the quit rate for women in January was 4.1%, 0.7 percentage points higher than the rate for men.
• Gusto found school and daycare closures impacted the gap between the quit rates for men and women.

Childcare problems during Omicron seem to have impacted some women's ability to work and ultimately influenced their decision to quit, more so than men.

A new analysis from Gusto, a small- and medium-sized business payroll and human resources platform, highlights what quit data looked like at the start of the new year based on its platform data.

According to Gusto, the quit rate for women in January was higher than the rate for men, at 4.1% and 3.4% respectively. Gusto notes that this means the gap between the two rates widened for the first time since August.

Gusto also examined what the rates for men and women looked like in different states and found that those with the highest share of households with childcare disruptions tended to see large gender gaps in quit rates. Additionally, Gusto found "states with some of the lowest rates of child care disruptions saw no gap in quits rates between men and women in January."

"There is a strong relationship between the level of childcare disruptions and the degree to which women have left their jobs more than men," Luke Pardue, economist at Gusto, wrote about the latest quits compared to childcare disruptions.

The following map shows the difference in the quit rates between women and men per Gusto:

Gusto told Insider that "a negative figure means that the male quit rate was larger in that state in January 2022." As seen in the above map, the gender gap in quits was positive in Vermont and Minnesota, meaning the rates for women were larger than that of men in those states.

Pardue told Insider a reason behind this higher rate for women could be due to childcare, as two in three caregivers in the US are women.

Pardue told Insider with schools closed because of Omicron, Gusto wanted to see how that had impacted the differences in quits between women and men. To do this, they took Gusto data and looked at a Census Household Pulse Survey question that asked whether children in a household couldn't go to childcare for reasons like closures or not being affordable.

The following chart of Gusto's analysis on platform data and microdata from the Census Household Pulse Survey that was shared with Insider shows how the difference in quits between women and men in January compare to disruptions in childcare across the country. While the data is noisy, states with more childcare disruptions tended to see a larger quit rates gap:

"At the state level, a one percent increase in the portion of households facing school or daycare closures was correlated with a 0.06 percentage point increase in the gap between men and women's quit rates," Pardue wrote in a report.

"What this tells us is that it really is childcare that's driving the differential economic effects of this pandemic between men and women — that every time schools close, childcare needs rise, women are forced to take that step back," Pardue told Insider. "And that's quite frankly going to have very long-term economic effects as the effect of leaving the workforce for even a small amount of time can be compounded over a worker's career."

The kind of jobs women work in could also be impacting their quit rate as many are employed in service-sector jobs for instance, Pardue said, which has seen high quit rates in recent months. In addition to childcare issues, people have left their current jobs for better pay, due to burnout, or to leave behind toxic workplaces. Workers have also left for roles in different industries.

"While COVID created uncertainty for many, it created opportunities for employees to change to industries where remote work, flexibility and higher pay are more prevalent and enabled them to pursue professional passions," Scott Bonneau, vice president of global talent attraction at Indeed, previously told Insider.

Businesses can support their employees with flexibility and childcare benefits

Pardue said "employers are doing everything they can to expand and become a part of this economic recovery." One thing small- and medium-size businesses can do if they can't compete with wages seen in larger businesses, he said, is take a look at the childcare benefits that can be offered as this can be an attractive benefit for working parents.

Employers can improve their workplaces to better support their employees with children. Companies can give working parents flexibility in working remotely as well as the option to work flexible schedules so that companies can keep them on payroll and from parents considering throwing in the towel.

"Flexibility in the workplace has become the name of the game, and that's because workers are demanding it," he said. "And particularly women who have childcare responsibilities need that flexibility in order to care for their families and care for loved ones while maintaining a job."