December 23, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Work experience in 2003

In 2003, the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years old and over that worked at some point during the year was 67.7 percent—0.7 percentage point lower than the 2002 level.

[Chart data—TXT]

This proportion had remained above 68.0 percent from 1984 through 2002, peaking at 70.6 percent in 1999.

The proportion of men who worked at some time during the year was 74.2 percent in 2003, down from 75.1 percent in 2002. The proportion of women who worked some time during the year, 61.7 percent, was down from its peak of 64.5 percent in 1999.

These data come from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For additional information, see "Work Experience of the Population in 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-2532. Work experience data for 2003, which were collected in the 2004 Annual Social and Economic Supplement, are not strictly comparable with data for 2002 and earlier years because of the introduction in January 2004 of revised population controls.