Employment Characteristics of Families Summary

Technical information:  (202) 691-6378         USDL 04-719
               http://www.bls.gov/cps/
                                               For release:  10:00 A.M. EDT
Media contact:                691-5902         Tuesday, April 20, 2004


              EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES IN 2003


   In 2003, 8.1 percent of families had an unemployed member, an increase
of 0.3 percentage point from the prior year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  This was the third consecu-
tive year this measure rose; in 2000, the proportion of families with an
unemployed member was 5.7 percent.  Of the nation's 75.3 million families,
82.0 percent had at least one employed member in 2003, down by 0.4 percentage
point from 2002.
   
   These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are
collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample
survey of approximately 60,000 households nationwide.  Families include
married-couple families, as well as those maintained by a man or a woman
with no spouse present.  For further information on the CPS, see the
Technical Note.
   
Families and Unemployment
   
   In an average week in 2003, 6.1 million families had at least one unem-
ployed member, up from 5.8 million families the year before.  The proportion
of black families with an unemployed member (13.7 percent) was higher than
the proportion of white families (7.1 percent), Asian families (9.4 percent),
and Hispanic families (11.1 percent).  (See table 1.)
   
   Of the 6.1 million families with at least one unemployed member, 70.5 per-
cent also had an employed family member.  Asian families with unemployment
were most likely to have at least one member employed (82.7 percent),
followed by white families (73.6 percent), Hispanic families (70.1 percent),
and black families (57.3 percent).  The percentage of black families with
unemployment and at least one employed member fell by 2.0 percentage points
in 2003; the declines for white and Hispanic families were smaller.
(See table 1.)
   
   Among married-couple families with unemployed members, 81.5 percent had
at least one employed member in 2003, down by 0.6 percentage point from
the prior year.  There was little over-the-year change in the proportion of
families maintained by women that had unemployment and also included an
employed member (47.8 percent in 2003).  Among families maintained by men,
in contrast, the proportion rose by 2.1 percentage points to 60.8 percent.
(See table 3.)
   
Families and Employment
   
   In 2003, 82.0 percent of families had at least one employed member.
Among Asian families, 89.1 percent had at least one employed member, as
did 86.1 percent of Hispanic families and 82.3 percent of white families.
Black families were the least likely to contain an employed member
(77.9 percent).  The proportion of such black families was 1.1 percentage
points below the prior year's level.  (See table 1.)
   
                                  - 2 -

   Among married-couple families, 83.3 percent had an employed member in
2003, down by 0.2 percentage point from 2002.  This proportion has declined
each year since 1999.  Both the husband and wife worked in 50.9 percent of
married-couple families in 2003.  This proportion has declined since 1997,
when it was 53.4 percent.  The proportion of married-couple families in
which only the wife worked rose for the third straight year, to 6.8 percent
in 2003.  The proportion in which only the husband worked was about unchanged
over the year at 20 percent; however, this statistic has risen by 0.8 per-
centage point since 2000.  (See table 2.)
   
Families with Children
   
   There were 35.4 million families with children under age 18 in 2003.
Of these, 90.3 percent had at least one parent employed, down from 90.7
percent in 2002.  All of the decline was among single-parent families.
   
   Nearly 97 percent of married-couple families with children had at least
one parent who was employed in 2003, the same as a year earlier.  Both
parents were employed in 60.7 percent of two-parent families, down by 0.6
percentage point from the year before.  In 30.5 percent of two-parent
families, only the father was employed, and, in 5.5 percent, only the mother
worked.  Both proportions edged up over the year and were at their highest
levels since the two series began in 1994.  (See table 4.)
   
   In 2003, the mother was employed in 71.9 percent of single-parent families
maintained by women, while the father was employed in 83.3 percent of single-
parent families maintained by men.  Both proportions were lower than in the
prior year.  (See table 4.)
   
Mothers
   
   The labor force participation rate for mothers with children under age
18 was 71.1 percent in 2003, down by 0.7 percentage point from the prior
year.  The participation rate for married mothers declined by 0.4 percentage
point to 68.6 percent, while that for unmarried mothers--those who were never
married, widowed, divorced, or separated--fell by 1.2 percentage points to
77.7 percent.  (See table 5.)
   
   The labor force participation rate for mothers of children younger than
a year old fell by 2.4 percentage points to 53.7 percent in 2003.  This
rate has fallen almost every year since 1998, when it was 57.9 percent.
For married mothers with children under age 1, the participation rate
continued its downward trend, falling by 1.8 percentage points in 2003 to
52.9 percent.  The participation rate for unmarried mothers with children
under age 1 fell by 4.7 percentage points to 56.2 percent.  (See table 6.)
   
   The unemployment rate for unmarried mothers with children under age 18
rose to 10.2 percent in 2003, from 9.5 percent in 2002.  There was little
change in the jobless rate for married mothers, at 4.0 percent in 2003.
(See table 5.)
   
   The jobless rate of unmarried mothers of children under age 1 rose from
19.6 percent in 2002 to 20.5 percent in 2003.  In contrast, the unemployment
rate for married mothers of children under age 1 fell from 6.0 percent to
5.1 percent.  (See table 6.)