Work Experience summary

Technical information:     (202) 691-6378      USDL 07-1923
                  http://www.bls.gov/cps/
                                               For release:  10:00 A.M. EST
Media contact:                   691-5902      Wednesday, December 19, 2007


                 WORK EXPERIENCE OF THE POPULATION IN 2006

   A total of 156.7 million persons worked at some point during 2006, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.
The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round rose to 68.4 per-
cent in 2006 from 67.5 percent in 2005.  The number of persons who experi-
enced some unemployment in 2006 was 14.4 million, about the same as a year
earlier.

   These data are based on information collected in the Annual Social and
Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS).  The CPS
is a monthly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of
Labor Statistics.  The ASEC collects information on employment and unemploy-
ment experienced during the prior calendar year.  Additional information
about the CPS and the ASEC, including concepts and definitions, is provided
in the Technical Note.  Highlights from the 2006 data include:

   --The proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population age
     16 years old and over that worked at some time during the year was
     67.8 percent in 2006, essentially unchanged from 2005.

   --The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2006
     (68.4 percent) was up from 2005 (67.5 percent).

   --The "work-experience unemployment rate"--defined as the number un-
     employed at some time during the year as a proportion of the number
     who worked or looked for work during the year--was 9.1 percent in
     2006, little changed from 9.3 percent in 2005.

Persons with Employment

   The proportion of men who worked at some time during 2006 held at
74.4 percent.  The percent of women who worked during 2006, at 61.6 per-
cent, was little changed from a year earlier.  (See table 1.)

   The proportions of whites (68.5 percent), blacks (63.6 percent), and
Asians (67.5 percent) that worked some time during the year were essen-
tially unchanged in 2006.  The proportion of Hispanics who worked at some
point during 2006 (69.1 percent) was up from 2005 (68.0 percent).
(See table 2.)

                                  - 2 -

   Among those with work experience during 2006, 78.0 percent were em-
ployed year round (working 50 to 52 weeks, either full or part time), up
by 0.6 percentage point from 2005.  The percentage of women working year
round rose to 74.8 percent in 2006, and the percentage of men employed 
year round edged up to 80.9 percent.  (See table 1.)

   Of those employed at some time during 2006, 80.9 percent usually worked
full time, up from 80.3 percent in 2005.  Men were more likely to work
full time during the year (87.8 percent) than were women (73.0 percent).

Persons with Unemployment

   Overall, 14.4 million persons experienced some unemployment in 2006,
essentially unchanged from 14.5 million in 2005.  (See table 3.)  The
number of persons that experienced some unemployment during the year was
down by 2.4 million from its recent high of 16.8 million in 2002.

   At 9.1 percent in 2006, the "work-experience unemployment rate" (those
looking for work during the year as a percent of those who worked or looked
for work during the year) was little changed from 9.3 percent in 2005.  The
2006 rate is low by historical standards, but is above the series low of
8.6 percent reached in 2000.  The rate for blacks fell in 2006; however, at
13.0 percent, it was higher than the rates for Hispanics (10.2 percent),
whites (8.5 percent), and Asians (7.3 percent).  (See tables 3 and 4.)

   Overall, men continued to have higher "work-experience unemployment
rates" than women in 2006.  Among whites, the rate for men (9.0 percent)
was higher than that for women (7.9 percent).  This also was true for black
men and women (14.5 and 11.7 percent, respectively).  The rates for Asian
men and women (7.5 and 7.0 percent, respectively) were little different
from each other, as were the rates for Hispanic men and women (10.7 and 
9.6 percent, respectively).

   Among those who experienced unemployment in 2006, the median number of
weeks spent looking for work was 13.8, down from 14.6 in 2005.  About 1.9
million individuals had looked for a job but did not work at all in 2006,
down from 2.4 million in 2005.  Of the 12.5 million persons who worked
during 2006 and also experienced unemployment, 24.5 percent had two or
more spells of joblessness, about the same share as in 2005.

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Last Modified Date: December 19, 2007