Axios Des Moines: Women age 55 and older were the biggest demographic to drop out of Iowa’s workforce since the start of the pandemic, countering the national narrative that young moms are the ones staying home most, according to a labor analysis by Peter Orazem, an economist at Iowa State. The pandemic sparked a nationwide exodus of older people from the workforce, but this especially hurt Iowa because a higher portion of retirement-age Iowans choose to work. While both genders saw drops in labor participation, women left at higher rates. Meanwhile, Iowa’s labor participation rose for women under the age of 45, unlike the rest of the U.S., Orazem said.