{"id":3403,"date":"2026-06-30T18:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:44:16","slug":"women-taking-weight-loss-drugs-more-likely-to-land-a-job-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3403","title":{"rendered":"Women taking weight-loss\u00a0drugs more likely to land a job, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Matthew Boyle, Bloomberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women taking obesity drugs aren\u2019t just lowering their weight \u2014 they\u2019re boosting their chances of landing a job.<\/p>\n

Read more Concord sports memorabilia dealer marketed fake Willie Mays items in million-dollar scheme<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the key finding of new study\u00a0by Harvard University economics professor Rebecca Diamond, who told Bloomberg News the research was inspired by an offhand comment from a female friend about how people treated her differently after she went on a GLP-1.<\/p>\n

The paper, which hasn\u2019t yet been peer-reviewed, found that the employment rate for women who weren\u2019t working before taking the medicine rose 27 percentage points\u00a0after about a year and a half.<\/p>\n

\u201cMass pharmacological weight loss is not only a health shock. It is also a shock to the social and labor-market valuation of body weight,\u201d Diamond concluded. \u201cWhat does not change for women is equally informative. The arrangements that do not respond are the ones already in place, where any first impression occurred long ago and where weight is one characteristic embedded in a much richer stock of information.\u201d In other words, those\u00a0who were already working weren\u2019t more likely to get a better job.<\/p>\n

Diamond\u00a0analyzed the University of Southern California\u2019s Understanding America Study, an online panel of more than 10,000 US adults, to determine the employment\u00a0and relationship status of women who started using GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, compared with women who were interested in taking GLP-1s\u00a0but hadn\u2019t yet started.\u00a0The paper didn\u2019t delve into the impact on unemployed or unattached\u00a0men, as women are much more likely to take GLP-1s and\u00a0the sample size of men in the panel was smaller.<\/p>\n

While existing research shows\u00a0that heavier women earn and work less, it\u2019s hard to distinguish correlation from causation, as body weight is also impacted by one\u2019s family background, education\u00a0and other factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unresolved question is therefore not only whether weight matters,\u201d Diamond wrote in the paper,\u00a0\u201cbut where it matters: inside existing jobs and relationships, or at the moment new jobs and relationships are formed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more San Jose Public Library\u2019s California Room wins a reprieve<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Using the USC panel, Diamond created a control group out of women who expressed interest in obesity drugs but hadn\u2019t taken them yet. Not only were non-employed women who started on a GLP-1 more likely to land a job, but single women taking the medication were also more likely, by equal measure, to get married or start living with a partner over the time period surveyed.<\/p>\n

What didn\u2019t change for GLP-1 takers, though, was their self-reported life satisfaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite life looking on paper better, it doesn\u2019t seem like there\u2019s some subjective wellbeing improvement\u00a0that is going along with it,\u201d Diamond said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Diamond couldn\u2019t determine whether women who started taking weight-loss drugs eventually earned more, as there wasn\u2019t enough data in the panel over the two-year time period studied. But it was clear that the women who started taking GLP-1s had higher household incomes than those who were merely interested in the drugs, thanks largely to their employed spouses who could pay for them.<\/p>\n

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According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in eight Americans has tried a GLP-1, and\u00a0that number is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, aided by expanding insurance coverage and availability of the medication in pill form. The global market for\u00a0GLP-1\u00a0drugs could reach $190 billion by 2035, more than double 2025 levels, according to an April report from\u00a0Morgan Stanley Research. In recent months, weight-loss\u00a0pills from\u00a0Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk A\/S\u00a0have been approved\u00a0in the US, bringing GLP-1 medications within reach for people unwilling to inject themselves.<\/p>\n

As more people find success on\u00a0weight-loss medications, they should be able to narrow\u00a0the employment gap between overweight and average-weight job seekers. However, Diamond notes, \u201cfor the people that are already lower income or less well resourced, you could imagine that exacerbating inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Wartime Price Gouging Act would give California attorney general new powers<\/a><\/p>\n

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women taking obesity drugs aren\u2019t just lowering their weight \u2014 they\u2019re boosting their chances of landing a job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nWomen taking weight-loss\u00a0drugs more likely to land a job, study finds - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3403\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women taking weight-loss\u00a0drugs more likely to land a job, study finds - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Women taking obesity drugs aren\u2019t just lowering their weight \u2014 they\u2019re boosting their chances of landing a job.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3403\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-30T18:44:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Women taking weight-loss\u00a0drugs more likely to land a job, study finds\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T18:44:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403\"},\"wordCount\":709,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/178245a47a21140c5a9646a97dcf057f.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=3403\",\"name\":\"Women taking weight-loss\u00a0drugs more likely to land a job, study finds - 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