Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 08-0731
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
For release: 10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, May 30, 2008
EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES IN 2007
In 2007, the share of families with an unemployed member was 6.3 per-
cent, little changed from the prior year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The proportion of fam-
ilies with an unemployed member remained lower than the recent peak of
8.1 percent in 2003. Of the nation’s 77.9 million families, the propor-
tion that had at least one employed member was little changed in 2007 at
82.6 percent.
These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are
collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sam-
ple survey of approximately 60,000 households. Families include married-
couple families, as well as families maintained by a man or woman with no
spouse present. For further information about the CPS, see the Technical
Note.
Families and Unemployment
In 2007, 4.9 million families had at least one member who was unemployed,
unchanged from 2006. The proportion of black families with an unemployed
member was 10.8 percent in 2007, about twice the proportion among white
(5.6 percent) and Asian (5.4 percent) families. Among Hispanic families,
8.5 percent had an unemployed member. The proportions of white and Asian
families with an unemployed member showed little or no change from 2006. The
proportion of black families with an unemployed member edged down in 2007,
while the percentage of Hispanic families with an unemployed member in 2007
edged up over the year. (See table 1.)
Among families with an unemployed member in 2007, 71.2 percent also had at
least one employed member, up from 69.6 percent in 2006. Among married-cou-
ple families with unemployment in 2007, 82.8 percent had an employed member,
little changed over the year. For families maintained by women (no spouse
present) with an unemployed member, the proportion that also contained an em-
ployed member rose from 47.3 percent in 2006 to 50.5 percent in 2007. For
families maintained by men (no spouse present), the proportion was 60.7 per-
cent in 2007, little changed from the prior year. (See tables 1 and 3.)
Families and Employment
In 2007, the proportion of families with at least one employed member
(82.6 percent) was little changed from the prior year. There was little or
no change in the proportion of families with employed members among white
(82.7 percent), Asian (89.6 percent), and Hispanic (87.6 percent) families.
Among black families, the proportion with employed members edged up in 2007
to 78.9 percent. (See table 1.)
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Among married-couple families, 83.7 percent had an employed member in 2007,
about the same as in 2006. For families maintained by women, the proportion
with an employed member increased from 76.0 percent in 2006 to 76.9 percent
in 2007. In families maintained by men, the proportion was up slightly to
85.7 percent. (See table 2.)
In 2007, the proportion of married-couple families in which only the hus-
band worked was unchanged at 19.8 percent. The proportion of married-couple
families in which only the wife worked was little changed in 2007 (6.6 per-
cent), as was the proportion of married-couple families that were dual-worker
families (51.7 percent). (See table 2.)
Families with Children
Nearly half of all families include children (sons, daughters, step-children,
and adopted children) under age 18. In 2007, 90.7 percent of the 35.9 million
families with children under 18 had at least one employed parent; this proportion
was little changed from 2006. In 2007, the mother was employed in 72.8 percent of
families maintained by women, slightly higher than in the prior year. For fami-
lies maintained by men, the father was employed in 85.2 percent of those families,
up from 83.5 percent in 2006. Among married-couple families, the proportion that
had an employed parent was unchanged in 2007 at 97.3 percent. The proportion of
married-couple families in which both parents were employed was little changed at
62.2 percent. (See table 4.)
Mothers
The labor force participation rate--the percent of the population that was
working or looking for work--for all mothers with children under 18 was 71.0 per-
cent in 2007, essentially unchanged from the prior year. The participation rate
remained below the recent peak of 72.3 percent in 2000. The participation rate of
married mothers in 2007, at 68.8 percent, was little changed from 2006. The pro-
portion of unmarried mothers--those who were widowed, divorced, separated, or never
married--who were in the labor force in 2007 was 76.5 percent, essentially
unchanged from the prior year. (See table 5.)
In 2007, the unemployment rate for all mothers with children under 18 was
4.6 percent. The jobless rate for married mothers was 3.0 percent, and the rate
for unmarried mothers was 8.0 percent. These rates were little changed from the
prior year. (See table 5.)
Of the 3.3 million mothers with children under a year old, 55.1 percent were in
the labor force in 2007, little changed from 2006. The labor force participation
rate for unmarried mothers with children under a year old in 2007 was 56.5 percent,
little changed from 2006. The participation rate for married mothers with chil-
dren under a year old, at 54.6 percent in 2007, also was little changed from a year
earlier. The unemployment rate for all mothers of children under age 1 continued
to trend down to 6.7 percent in 2007. (See table 6.)
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| |
| |
| Changes to Weighting Procedure in Table 5 |
| |
| The estimates for married men in table 5 of this news release were |
|computed using a different weighting procedure than was used in past ver- |
|sions of this annual release. The new procedure results in estimates of |
|married men that are higher than those based on the previous procedure. |
|The weighting procedure change was implemented to a) introduce a consist- |
|ent methodology for all person-based estimates in this release; b) provide |
|consistency with estimates of married men presented in other BLS publica- |
|tions; and c) enable users of the public-use microdata files to replicate |
|all estimates in this news release. |
| |
| The change also affected all totals in table 5 that include married men,|
|such as total men and total married persons. Data for women and men of |
|other marital statuses were not affected. The change also was applied to |
|data for 2006 in table 5; therefore, 2006 estimates presented in table 5 of|
|this release do not match those published in the "Employment Characteris- |
|tics of Families in 2006" news release (USDL 07-0673). |
| |
| For further information, contact the Division of Labor Force Statistics |
|at cpsinfo@bls.gov or (202) 691-6378. |
| |
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Bureau of Labor Statistics
