Highlights from the 2007 data include:
- The proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 years and over who worked at some time during 2007 was 67.7 percent, essentially unchanged from 2006.
- The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2007 was 68.4 percent, the same as in the prior year.
- The "work-experience unemployment rate" - defined as the number unemployed at some time during the year as a proportion of the number who worked or looked for work during the year - was 9.5 percent in 2007, up from 9.1 percent in 2006.
Persons with Employment
The percent of men who worked during 2007 was 74.1 percent, down slightly from 74.4 percent in 2006. The proportion of women who worked at some point during 2007 held at 61.6 percent.
The proportions of whites (68.3 percent), blacks (63.5 percent), and Asians (67.8 percent) who worked at some time during the year were essentially unchanged in 2007. The proportion of Hispanics who worked at some point during 2007 (68.5 percent) was down from 2006 (69.1 percent).
Among those with work experience during 2007, 78.2 percent were employed year round (working 50 to 52 weeks, either full or part time), little changed from 2006. The percentage of women working year round rose 0.9 percentage point to 75.7 percent in 2007, and the percentage of men employed year round edged down 0.4 percentage point to 80.5 percent.
Of those employed at some time during 2007, 80.9 percent usually worked full time, the same share as in 2006. Men were more likely to work full time during the year (87.4 percent) than were women (73.6 percent), but the gap narrowed in 2007. The incidence of men working full
time declined by 0.4 percentage point while the incidence of women working full time increased by 0.6 percentage point.
Persons with Unemployment
About 159.8 million persons worked or looked for work at some time in 2007. Of those, 15.1 million experienced some unemployment during the year, up from 14.4 million in 2006. Men accounted for the majority of the over-the-year increase in unemployment.
At 9.5 percent in 2007, the "work-experience unemployment rate" (those looking for work during the year as a percent of those who worked or looked for work during the year) was 0.4 percentage point higher than in 2006. The 2007 rate is relatively low by historical standards, but is above the series low of 8.6 percent reached in 2000. The rates for Hispanics (12.3 percent) and whites (9.0 percent) rose in 2007, while the rates for blacks (12.7 percent) and Asians (6.9 percent) were little changed.
Overall, men continued to have higher "work-experience unemployment rates" in 2007 than did women, 10.3 versus 8.6 percent, respectively. Among whites, the rate for men (9.9 percent) was higher than that for women (8.0 percent). This also was the case among blacks (13.9 and 11.6 percent, respectively) and Hispanics (13.0 and 11.3 percent, respectively.) The rates for Asian men (7.0 percent) and women (6.8 percent) were little different.
Among those who experienced unemployment in 2007, the median number of weeks spent looking for work was 13.8, unchanged from the prior year. About 2.1 million individuals looked for a job but did not work at all in 2007, up from 1.9 million in 2006. Of the 13.0 million persons who worked during 2007 and also experienced unemployment, 23.8 percent had 2 or more spells of joblessness, little different than the share in 2006.
