2005 Employment Characteristics of Families — 2006-04-27

In 2005, 7.0 percent of families had an unemployed member, down by 0.4 percentage point from the prior year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since 2003, the proportion of families with an unemployed member has fallen by 1.1 percentage points. Of the nation's 76.4 million families, 82.3 percent had at least one em- ployed member in 2005, the same proportion as in 2004. 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 include married-couple families, as well as those maintained by a man or woman with no spouse present. For further information about the CPS, see the Technical Note. In 2005, 5.3 million families had at least one member who was unemployed, down from 5.6 million in 2004.