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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Current Population Survey > Home

Race and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity

Here you will find labor force, employment, and unemployment statistics by race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity from the Current Population Survey.

Explore our data

Read the latest Employment Situation news release (monthly)
- Find archived news releases in HTML and PDF format
Find the latest numbers from the Employment Situation news release tables (monthly)

Find the historical data from the Employment Situation news release tables (monthly)
Find labor force statistics by race and ethnicity in our monthly, quarterly, and annual average tables
Use the One-Screen Data Search tool to retrieve time series by race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity
Find data for specific groups:

Looking for additional analysis?

Search the data visualizations in the TED: The Economics Daily for race or Hispanic ethnicity
Search our library of research by CPS staff for race or Hispanic ethnicity
Find reports on labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity

Understanding these data

What you need to know

Race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity are different concepts and will not sum to total

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity is a separate demographic concept from race in the CPS. People of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity may be of any race. People who provide two or more races are categorized as People of Two or More Races and are not included in the individual race groups.

In most BLS publications of CPS data, people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity are included in the race groups (White, Black or African American, Asian) in addition to being shown separately. Estimates for the above race groups will not sum to totals because data are not presented for all races. Because of the overlap between race and Hispanic ethnicity, data for the race and Hispanic ethnicity groups also will not sum to the total (or 100 percent).

Historical comparability

Historical data by race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity are available in our database for the following years:

White – 1954 to present
Black or African American – 1972 to present
Asian – 2000 to present (Seasonally adjusted 2003 to present)
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity – 1973 to present
American Indian or Alaska Native - 2000 to present
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander - 2003 to present
Two or more races - 2003 to present

The CPS implemented changes to the race classifications in January 2003. These changes affected data comparability over time. For more information, see Revisions to the Current Population Survey Effective in January 2003.

Questions about these data?

Are data by race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity available combined with other characteristics?

Yes, race and ethnicity data are produced for many different groups of people (e.g., by age group, for veterans, for foreign- and native-born workers, etc.). For more information, search the CPS A-Z index for the group that interests you and explore the tables that are available.