London (CNN Business) Researchers at the World Economic Forum are highlighting a troubling trend: Fewer women around the world are working.

WEF said in a report published Monday that women are slowly narrowing the gender gap when it comes to income and representation in senior management. But after years of closing the gap in workforce participation, momentum has stalled.

The group described the finding as a "worrisome development," and put forward a handful of factors that help explain the lack of progress.

Automation is having a disproportionate impact on roles traditionally performed by women, WEF said in its annual report on gender. At the same time, fewer women work in growth industries that require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Research done in partnership with LinkedIn shows that only 22% of global professionals working on artificial intelligence are women, for example.

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