For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Thursday, April 26, 2012 USDL-12-0771
Technical information: (202) 691-6378 * cpsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cps
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES -- 2011
In 2011, 11.5 percent of families included an unemployed person,
falling from a peak of 12.4 percent in 2010, the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported today. Of the nation's 78.4 million
families, 79.8 percent had at least one employed member in 2011.
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. Families
are classified either as married-couple families or as families
maintained by women or men without spouses present. For further
information about the CPS, see the Technical Note.
Families and Unemployment
The number of families with at least one member unemployed
decreased from 9.7 million in 2010 to 9.0 million in 2011. The
proportion of families with an unemployed member also declined
from a peak of 12.4 percent in 2010 to 11.5 percent in 2011. In
2011, black and Hispanic families remained more likely to have an
unemployed member (18.9 and 16.3 percent, respectively) than
white and Asian families (10.4 and 10.9 percent, respectively).
(See table 1.)
Most families with an unemployed member also have at least one
family member who is employed. Among families with an
unemployed member in 2011, 67.2 percent also had an employed
family member, about the same as in 2010. (See table 1.)
Among married-couple families with an unemployed member in 2011,
79.2 percent contained at least one employed family member. Among
families maintained by men (no spouse present) with an unemployed
member, 53.6 percent had an employed member in 2011; for families
maintained by women (no spouse present), the proportion was 45.9
percent. These proportions were little changed from 2010 for the
three family types. (See table 3.)
Families and Employment
The share of families with an employed member edged down from
80.0 percent in 2010 to 79.8 percent in 2011. The likelihood of
having an employed family member declined to 74.2 percent in
2011 for black families. The share for Asian families rose to
88.0 percent, while the likelihood for white and Hispanic
families showed little or no change at 80.2 and 84.2 percent,
respectively. (See table 1.)
In 2011, families maintained by women with no spouse present
remained less likely to have an employed member (71.7 percent)
than married-couple families (81.9 percent) or families maintained
by men with no spouse present (80.2 percent). Both the husband and
wife were employed in 47.5 percent of married-couple families in
2011. The husband was the only worker in 19.9 percent of
married-couple families, and the wife was the only worker in
8.3 percent. (See table 2.)
Families with Children
Forty-four percent of all families included children (sons,
daughters, step-children, or adopted children) under age 18.
Among the 34.3 million families with children, 87.2 percent had
an employed parent in 2011, compared with 87.4 percent in 2010.
The mother was employed in 65.9 percent of families maintained by
women with no spouse present in 2011, down from 67.0 percent in
2010. The father was employed in 79.6 percent of families maintained
by men with no spouse present in 2011, up from 75.8 percent in 2010.
Among married-couple families with children, 95.8 percent had an
employed parent in 2011, little changed from the prior year. The
share of married-couple families where both parents worked edged
up to 58.5 percent in 2011 from 58.1 percent in 2010. (See table 4.)
Mothers
The labor force participation rate--the percent of the population
working or looking for work--for all mothers with children under
age 18 was 70.6 percent in 2011, little different from 70.8 percent
in 2010. In 2011, the participation rate for married mothers with
a spouse present (68.7 percent) remained lower than the rate for
mothers with other marital statuses (74.6 percent). (Other marital
status refers to persons who never married or are widowed, divorced,
separated, or married but living apart from their spouse.) Married
mothers were about as likely to be employed as mothers with other
marital statuses in 2011, but their unemployment rate was
substantially lower--6.0 percent, compared with 15.0 percent for
mothers with other marital statuses. (See table 5.)
Mothers with younger children are less likely to be in the labor
force than mothers with older children. In 2011, the labor force
participation rate of mothers with children under 6 years old
(63.9 percent) was lower than the rate of those whose youngest
child was 6 to 17 years old (76.1 percent). The participation
rate of mothers with infants under a year old was 55.8 percent.
Among mothers with infants, there was little difference in the
participation rate of married mothers (56.9 percent) and those
with other marital statuses (53.2 percent). However, the
unemployment rate for married mothers of infants, at 6.4 percent,
was considerably lower than the rate for mothers with other
marital statuses (24.2 percent). (See tables 5 and 6.)
