2001 Employment Characteristics of Families — 2002-03-29

Reflecting the economic downturn that began early in 2001, the proportion of families containing an unemployed member rose by nearly a percentage point to 6.6 percent between 2000 and 2001, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Of the nation's 72 million families, the share with at least one employed member fell by 0.3 percentage point to 82.9 percent in 2001. These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households. Families include married-couple families, as well as families maintained by a man or a woman with no spouse present. For further information about the CPS, see the Technical Note. In an average week in 2001, 4.8 million families had at least one member who was unemployed, a rise of 665,000 families from 2000.