April 01, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Families with unemployment in 2001

Reflecting the economic downturn that began early in 2001, the proportion of families containing at least one unemployed member rose by nearly a percentage point to 6.6 percent between 2000 and 2001.

[Chart data—TXT]

In an average week in 2001, 4.8 million families had at least one member who was unemployed, a rise of 665,000 families from 2000. The proportion of black families with an unemployed member (11.4 percent) was higher than for either Hispanic (9.9 percent) or white families (5.8 percent); for all three groups, the proportion of families with someone unemployed was higher in 2001 than the year before.

These data on unemployment and family relationships are from the Current Population Survey. Find out more in "Employment characteristics of families in 2001," news release USDL 02-175.