Employment Characteristics of Families News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Wednesday, April 23, 2025                                     USDL-25-0564

Technical information:  (202) 691-6378  *  cpsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/cps 
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov


                         EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES -- 2024 


In 2024, 5.3 percent of families included an unemployed person, up from 4.8 percent in 2023,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Of the nation's 84.3 million families,
80.1 percent had at least one employed member in 2024.

These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are collected as part of the
Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about 60,000 households. Data in this
news release are annual averages. Families are classified either as married-couple families or
as families maintained by women or men without spouses present. Unless otherwise noted,
families include those with and without children under age 18. For further information, see
the Technical Note in this news release.

Families and Unemployment

In 2024, the number of families with at least one unemployed family member increased by
485,000 to 4.5 million. The proportion of families with an unemployed person increased by 0.5
percentage point from the prior year to 5.3 percent. The proportion of families with an
unemployed person rose for White families (to 4.8 percent), Black families (to 7.9 percent),
Asian families (to 5.1 percent), and Hispanic families (to 7.8 percent) in 2024. Black and
Hispanic families remained more likely to have an unemployed member than White or Asian
families. (See table 1.)

Among families with an unemployed member in 2024, 72.0 percent also had at least one employed
family member, down by 1.0 percentage point from the prior year. The proportion of families
with an unemployed member that had at least one family member working full time changed
little, at 63.1 percent, in 2024. Among families with an unemployed member, Black families
remained less likely to also have at least one family member who was working in 2024 (60.2
percent of families) than White (74.4 percent), Asian (82.4 percent), and Hispanic (73.7
percent) families. (See table 1.)

In 2024, 4.2 percent of married-couple families had an unemployed member, which was less than
the shares for families maintained by women (8.2 percent) and for families maintained by men
(8.4 percent). Among families with an unemployed member, both those maintained by women and
those maintained by men were less likely to also include an employed family member (56.8
percent and 59.0 percent, respectively) than married-couple families (82.6 percent). (See
tables 2 and 3.)

Families and Employment

The share of families with at least one employed family member was little changed at 80.1
percent in 2024. The likelihood of having an employed family member changed little for White
(79.3 percent), Asian (87.5 percent), and Hispanic (87.1 percent) families. This likelihood
decreased by 1.2 percentage points for Black families (to 80.0 percent) in 2024. White
families were the least likely to have an employed family member. (See table 1.)

The share of families with an employed member changed little for married-couple families (79.6
percent), families maintained by women (79.6 percent), and families maintained by men (84.8
percent) in 2024. Families maintained by women remained less likely to have an employed member
than families maintained by men. Families maintained by women and married-couple families were
equally likely to include an employed member. (See table 2.)

In 2024, both spouses were employed in 49.6 percent of married-couple families, little
different from the prior year. Only one spouse was employed in 23.4 percent of married-couple
families. (See table 2.)

Families with Children 

In 2024, 32.7 million families, or nearly two-fifths of all families, included children under
age 18. (Included are biological, step-, or adopted children living in the household who are
under age 18. Nieces, nephews, grandchildren, other related and unrelated children, and
children not living in the household are not included.) At least one parent was employed in
91.4 percent of families with children, down from 91.9 percent in 2023. Among married-couple
families with children, 97.5 percent had at least one employed parent in 2024, and in 66.5
percent of these families both parents were employed. Among families maintained by fathers,
84.8 percent of fathers were employed, down from 86.5 percent in 2023. This was a greater 
share than the 75.4 percent of mothers who were employed in families maintained by mothers, 
little changed from the prior year. (See tables 1 and 4.)

Parents

The labor force participation rate--the percent of the population working or looking for work--
for all mothers with children under age 18 was 74.0 percent in 2024, unchanged from the prior
year. The participation rate for fathers with children under age 18 changed little at 93.5
percent in 2024. (See table 5.)

The participation rates for married mothers and for married fathers (72.3 percent and 94.3
percent, respectively) changed little in 2024. The rates for mothers and fathers with other
marital statuses (77.7 percent and 89.4 percent, respectively) were also little changed from
the previous year. Married mothers remained less likely to participate in the labor force in
2024 than mothers with other marital statuses. By contrast, married fathers remained more
likely to participate in the labor force than fathers with other marital statuses. (Other
marital status includes people who are never married; widowed; divorced; separated; and
married, spouse absent.) (See table 5.)

Mothers of younger children remained less likely to participate in the labor force than
mothers with older children. In 2024, 68.3 percent of mothers with children under age 6
participated in the labor force compared with 78.0 percent of mothers whose youngest child was
ages 6 to 17. Conversely, fathers with children under age 6 were more likely to participate in
the labor force than those whose youngest child was ages 6 to 17 (94.9 percent versus 92.5
percent). (See table 5.)

In 2024, the unemployment rate for mothers increased by 0.6 percentage point from the prior
year to 3.6 percent, and the rate for fathers increased by 0.2 percentage point from the prior
year to 2.4 percent. The unemployment rate for married mothers remained considerably lower
than the rate for mothers with other marital statuses in 2024--2.4 percent compared with 6.1
percent. Married fathers also continued to have a lower unemployment rate than fathers with 
other marital statuses (1.9 percent versus 5.4 percent). Among mothers who had children under
age 3, the unemployment rate for those with other marital statuses was about three times 
higher than that for married mothers (8.1 percent versus 2.4 percent). (See tables 5 and 6.)

Employed fathers remained more likely to work full time than employed mothers in 2024--95
percent compared with 79 percent. Among employed mothers, those with older children remained
more likely to work full time than those with younger children. In 2024, 81 percent of
employed mothers with children ages 6 to 17 worked full time compared with 76 percent of
mothers with children under age 6. However, employed fathers of older children and those with
younger children were equally likely to work full time (95 percent). (See table 5.)

Technical Note 

   The estimates in this news release are based on annual average data from the Current
Population Survey (CPS). The CPS, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is a monthly survey of about 60,000 eligible
households that provides information on the labor force status, demographics, and
other characteristics of the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16
and over.

   If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 
7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Definitions

   Definitions of the principal terms used in this news release are described briefly
below.

   Householder. The householder is the family reference person. This is the person
(or one of the people) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented. The
relationship of other individuals in the household is defined in terms of their
relationship to the householder. The race and Hispanic ethnicity of the family is
determined by that of the householder.

   Family. A family is a group of two or more people residing together who are
related by birth, marriage, or adoption; all such individuals are considered 
members of one family. The count of families is for "primary" families only. A 
primary family consists of a householder and all other people related to and
residing with the householder. Sub-families are excluded from the count of 
families. A sub-family is a family that does not maintain their own household,
such as a married couple living in the home of a friend and their family. In this
example, the report would include only one family (the householder's or primary
family), not two.

   Families include those with and without children under age 18. Families are 
further categorized as follows:

   --Married-couple families refer to opposite-sex and same-sex married couples
residing together and any of their family members residing in the household.

   --Families maintained by women or men are made up of householders residing 
with one or more family members but no spouse of either sex present. Unmarried 
domestic partners of either sex may or may not be present in the household.

   This news release presents data for two marital status categories, defined below.
Marital status is based on a person's status at the time of the survey.

   Total married, spouse present. Married, spouse present, includes people in
either opposite-sex or same-sex marriages living together in the same household,
even though one may be temporarily absent on business, on vacation, on a visit,
in a hospital, or for other reasons.

   Other marital status. Other marital status includes people who are never 
married; widowed; divorced; separated; and married, spouse absent. Separated 
includes people with legal separations, those living apart with intentions of 
obtaining a divorce, and other people permanently or temporarily separated 
because of marital discord. Married, spouse absent, includes married people 
living apart because either a husband or wife was employed and living at a 
considerable distance from home, was serving away from home in the Armed Forces,
had moved to another area, or had a different place of residence for any other 
reason except separation as defined above.

   Children. Data on children refer to own children under age 18 that live in 
the household. Included are biological, step-, and adopted children of the 
husband, wife, or person maintaining the family. Not included are nieces, 
nephews, grandchildren, other related children, and all unrelated children 
living in the household. Children not living in the household are also not 
included.

   Parents. Data on parents refer to people living in a household with their
own children under age 18. (This includes those living with biological,
step-, and adopted children.)
   
   Employed. Employed people are all those who, during the survey reference
week, (a) did any work at all as paid employees; (b) worked in their own 
business, profession, or on their own farm; or (c) worked 15 hours or more as
unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family. People 
who were temporarily absent from their jobs because of illness, vacation, 
labor disputes, or another reason also are counted as employed.

   Full-time workers. Full-time workers are those who usually work 35 hours or
more per week at all jobs.

   Part-time workers. Part-time workers are those who usually work fewer than
35 hours per week at all jobs.

   Unemployed. The unemployed are people who had no employment during the 
reference week, were available for work at that time, and had made specific 
efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the 
reference week. People who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which 
they had been laid off need not be looking for work to be classified as 
unemployed.

   Civilian labor force. The civilian labor force comprises all people 
classified as employed or unemployed.

   Labor force participation rate. The labor force participation rate is the
number of people in the labor force as a percent of the population.

   Employment-population ratio. The employment-population ratio is the number
of employed people as a percent of the population.

   Unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people
as a percent of the civilian labor force.

Reliability of the estimates

   Statistics based on the CPS are subject to both sampling and nonsampling 
error. When a sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed, there is
a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the true population values
they represent. The exact difference, or sampling error, varies depending on 
the particular sample selected, and this variability is measured by the 
standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90-percent chance, or level 
of confidence, that an estimate based on a sample will differ by no more than
1.6 standard errors from the true population value because of sampling error.
BLS analyses are generally conducted at the 90-percent level of confidence.

   The CPS data also are affected by nonsampling error. Nonsampling error can
occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the 
population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the 
sample, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct 
information, and errors made in the collection or processing of the data.

   Information about the reliability of data from the CPS and guidance on 
estimating standard errors are available at 
www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#reliability.

Comparability of the estimates

   Effective with data for 2020, estimates of the number of married people
refer to those in opposite-sex and same-sex marriages. Prior to 2020, 
estimates of the number of married people referred to those in opposite-sex
marriages only. The definition of families incorporated this change by 
expanding the definition of married-couple families to include same-sex 
married couples. This new classification resulted in a larger estimate of 
the number of people who are married with a spouse present. It also resulted
in a larger estimate of the number of married-couple families and the total 
number of families. 

   In addition, the data presented in this news release are not strictly comparable
with data for earlier years due to the introduction of updated population 
estimates, or controls, used in the CPS. The population controls are updated
each year in January to reflect the latest information about population change.
Additional information is available from the BLS website at 
www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#pop.