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October, 1987, Vol. 110, No.
10
A profile of husbands
in today's labor market
By most measures, married men have always epitomized labor market success. At any time, the vast majority are in the labor force working full-time, and their earnings are generally much higher than those of other major labor force groups. Furthermore, their unemployment rate is usually well below the national average. Despite husbands' relative labor market advantages, the proportion who are labor force participants has been falling for several decades.
Relatively little attention has been focused on husbands' labor force characteristics in recent years, partly because they have been overshadowed by the dramatic labor market developments among women, especially wives. To restore some balance to the analysis of family labor force data, this article discusses the 1987 labor force experience of married men (excluding those not living with their wives) and reviews the long-term downward trend in their labor force participation. The information is based largely on data collected each March in the Current Population Survey (CPS).1
This excerpt is from an article published in the October 1987 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.
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1 This article is derived primarily from information collected in the March Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is the monthly household survey (presently including 59,500 households) conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the bureau of the Census. Information obtained from this survey relates to the employment status of the noninstitutional population 16 years old and over.
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