Why do the surveys give such different results? Let me count the reasons:

  1. The establishment survey doesn't include farms while the household survey does, and in 2017, about three-quarters of farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers were men.

  2. The establishment survey doesn't include the self-employed while the household survey does, and men also greatly outnumber women among the self-employed.

  3. The establishment survey double-counts people with multiple jobs, and more women than men report holding multiple jobs.

  4. People working as independent contractors or off the books usually don't show up in the establishment surveys. The last time the BLS counted the number of independent contractors, in 2005, 1 about two-thirds were men, and while there's no formal count of off-the-books workers, it seems likely that many are in male-dominated fields such as construction.

Most of the differences between the two surveys, then, have to do with the different sorts of jobs that men and women do. 2 Here's women's share of employment in 2017 in the broad occupational categories tracked by the BLS in the household survey: