November 15, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Blacks, men most likely to experience unemployment

Of the 150 million persons who worked or looked for work at some time in 2000, 12.3 million experienced some unemployment during the year. The "work-experience unemployment rate" in 2000 was 8.2 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

The "work-experience unemployment rate" for blacks, 12.1 percent, was higher than the rate for either Hispanics (10.5 percent) or whites (7.6 percent). Men had higher rates than did women in each of these three groups, but this was especially true among blacks. The "work-experience unemployment rate" for black men (14.0 percent) was much higher than that for black women (10.5 percent).

Black men were the only major group for whom the "work-experience unemployment rate" increased from 1999 to 2000.

These data were tabulated from the March supplement to the Current Population Survey. The "work-experience unemployment rate" is the number who were unemployed at any time during 2000 as a percent of all those who ever worked or looked for work over the course of the year. See news release USDL 01-401, "Work Experience of the Population in 2000," for more information.