Regional Trends
Educational attainment of the labor force and jobless rates, 2003
Multiple jobholding in States,
2003
Educational attainment of the labor force and jobless rates, 2003
Full Text (PDF 29K)
Excerpt from the report:
States differ rather widely in the educational attainment of their workforces. The Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of 60,000 households, provided data on the labor force ages 25 and older in 2003 for four categories of educational attainment梩hose with less than a high school diploma; those with a high school diploma but no college; those with some college or an associate degree; and those with a bachelor抯 degree and higher.
Labor force composition
In 2003, Texas had the greatest share of persons with less than a high school diploma in its labor force (17.3 percent), followed by California (14.7 percent). Of the 13 States where persons without a high school diploma accounted for a greater share of the labor force than the U.S. average of 10.2 percent, 8 were located in the South and 4 were in the West. All four of the States along the Mexican border were included in this group. Two Great Plains States桵innesota and North Dakota梙ad the smallest shares of persons in this least educated category, each less than 5 percent. (See table 1.)
The share of the workforce with a bachelor抯 degree and higher was greatest in Massachusetts (43.5 percent). Maryland and New Jersey were the only other States in which those who completed college constituted more than 40 percent of the labor force. However, in the District of Columbia, these highly educated workers accounted for about 55 percent of the labor force. Of the 17 States in which the share of labor force participants with a bachelor抯 degree and higher was above the U.S. average of 32 percent, nearly half were located in the Northeast region of the country. At the other extreme, fewer than 1 in 4 labor force participants in Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, West Virginia, and Wyoming were college graduates. In every State of the East South Central and West South Central divisions, persons with a bachelor抯 degree and higher made up less than 30 percent of the labor force.
The proportion of labor force participants who completed high school but never attended college ranged from 21.8 percent in California to 43.5 percent in West Virginia. Shares of the workforce with some college or an associate degree ranged from slightly more than 21 percent in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to just more than 36 percent in Wyoming. For both of these intermediate educational attainment groups, the District of Columbia had lower shares than any State: only 19.3 percent were high school graduates with no college, and 16.4 percent had some college or an associate degree.
Multiple jobholding in States, 2003
Full Text including map (PDF 66K)
Excerpt from the report:
In 2003, States were about evenly split between those reporting lower multiple jobholding rates than a year earlier and those that had higher rates: 24 States and the District of Columbia recorded decreases, 22 States had increases, and 4 States had no change. The national multiple jobholding rate was unchanged in 2003 at 5.3 percent, after edging downward every year since 1996. The largest over-the-year decreases in the States were posted in Connecticut (�0 percentage point), Nebraska and Oklahoma (�9 point each), and Maryland (�8 point). Idaho and Utah experienced the largest increases in multiple jobholding rates (+1.2 percentage points each), followed by Louisiana (+0.9 point). Another four States had over-the-year increases of +0.7 point, and three had increases of +0.6 point.
While the national rate was the same as a year earlier, it was still 0.9 percentage point lower than in 1996, when it began edging downward from a peak of 6.2 percent. Over that 8-year span, 45 States and the District of Columbia experienced decreases in multiple job-holding rates. The largest declines over this time period were in Wisconsin (�6 points), Missouri (�5 points), Massachusetts (�3 points), and Iowa (�2 points). Only one State experienced an increase in multiple jobholding greater than 0.4 percentage point over this span桿tah (+1.1 points).
Overall, 29 States had higher rates than the national average, 19 States and the District of Columbia had lower rates, and 2 States matched the national rate. The States with relatively high multiple job-holding rates were concentrated in the northern half of the country. All seven States in the West North Central division continued to register multiple jobholding rates above that of the Nation, with North Dakota and Nebraska again recording the highest rates, 9.7 and 9.4 percent, respectively. The northernmost States in the Mountain, New England, and Pacific divisions also had relatively high rates. The high multiple jobholding rates in many States, particularly in the relatively less populous Plains States, generally coincided with above-average incidence of both part-time employment and agricultural employment.
"Regional Trends" is prepared in the Division of Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics. More information is on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/lau/ or call (202) 691-6392.
Within Monthly Labor Review Online:
Welcome | Current
Issue | Index | Subscribe
| Archives
Exit Monthly Labor Review Online:
BLS Home | Publications & Research
Papers
