1997 Employment Characteristics of Families — 1998-05-21

The share of all U.S. families with at least one worker rose by 0.8 percentage point to 82.2 percent in 1997, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, the proportion of families with an unemployed person fell by 0.6 percentage point to 7.0 percent. The data in this release are based on information collected in the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 50,000 households that provides data on national employment and unemployment. For further information about this survey, see the Technical Note. Some of the highlights of the findings include: --The number of dual-worker families--families in which both the husband and wife worked--grew by 352,000 between 1996 and 1997, while the number of "traditional" families--couples in which only the husband was employed-- declined by 145,000.