Highly-qualified women in the US are not contributing fully to the nation's economy because they cannot find work after taking career breaks, according to research commissioned by Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

As many as 93 per cent who stop want to get back to work, but only 74 per cent find jobs and only 40 per cent return to full-time employment, the research published in the March edition of the Harvard Business Review shows. The situation is worse in banking and finance, where only 67 per cent get back into jobs. The study will be discussed by a taskforce of 19 companies, which include BP, Cisco Systems, Pfizer and Unilever, in London today.