1996 Employment Characteristics of Families — 1997-06-16

The number of families with at least one employed person rose by 709,000 in 1996, the U.S. Department of Labor�s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Such families comprised 81.4 percent of the nation�s 69.2 million families. This finding is from a new annual series on the employment characteristics of families and family members based on annual average data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). (See Explanatory Note.) Highlights of the data follow: --In 1996, black families continued to be less likely to include an employed member (75.3 percent) than were either white or Hispanic families (about 82.0 percent). (See table 1.) It should be noted that these data include families that may have members who are beyond working age. --About 5.3 million families--7.6 percent of all families--had at least one person who was unemployed in 1996. This proportion was down from 7.9 percent in 1995.