The US Department of Labor just released new statistics about women in the workplace. Not surprisingly, (at least not to most women), the statistics show that in 2008 women still earned less than men.

According to the data,in 2008 there were 121 million women age 16 years and over in the U.S. Of those, 59.5 percent were either working full-time, part-time or looking for work. In fact, women accounted for 46.5 percent of the total U.S. labor force and are projected to account for 47 percent of the labor force in 2016. Of the women who were employed at the time of the study, 75 percent worked full-time and 25 percent worked part time.

Here are other highlights of the report.

The median weekly earnings of women who were full-time wage and salary workers was $638, or 80 percent of men’s $798. When comparing the median weekly earnings of persons aged 16 to 24, young women earned 91 percent of what young men earned ($420 and $461, respectively).

The ten occupations with the highest median weekly earnings among women who were full-time wage and salary workers were:

1. Pharmacists, $1,647
2. Chief executives, $1,603
3. Lawyers, $1,509
4. Computer software engineers, $1,351
5. Computer and information systems managers, $1,260
6. Physicians and surgeons, $1,230
7. Management analysts, $1,139
8. Human resource managers, $1,137
9. Speech-language pathologists, $1.124
10. Computer scientists and systems analysts, $1,082

Women accounted for 51 percent of all workers in the high-paying management, professional, and related occupations. They outnumbered men in such occupations as public relations managers; financial managers; human resource managers; education administrators; medical and health services managers; accountants and auditors; budget analysts; biological scientists; preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers; physical therapists; writers and authors; and registered nurses.

Of persons aged 25 years and older, 29 percent of women and 30 percent of men had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher; 31 percent of women and men had completed only high school, no college.

To read the complete report from the US Department of labor visit http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm.