Employment Characteristics of Families Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, April 23, 2026                                   USDL-26-0652

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


                        EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES -- 2025


In 2025, 5.7 percent of families included an unemployed person, up from 5.3 percent in 2024,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Of the nation's 85.9 million families,
79.8 percent had at least one employed member in 2025, down 0.3 percentage point over the
year.

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. 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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________
|											        |
|                      Federal Government Shutdown Impact on Families Data		        |
|											        |
| The Current Population Survey (CPS) for October 2025 was not collected due to the federal	|
| government shutdown. As a result, annual estimates for 2025 household survey data were	|
| produced using 11-month averages that exclude October. Consequently, 2025 annual estimates	|
| are not strictly comparable with annual averages for other years.				|
|												|
| For information about the impact of the federal government shutdown on CPS data, see		|
| www.bls.gov/cps/methods/2025-federal-government-shutdown-impact-cps.htm.			|
|_______________________________________________________________________________________________|


Families and Unemployment

In 2025, the number of families with at least one unemployed family member increased by
367,000 to 4.9 million. The proportion of families with an unemployed person increased by 0.4
percentage point from the prior year to 5.7 percent. The proportion of families with an
unemployed person rose for White families (to 5.0 percent), Black families (to 9.0 percent),
and Asian families (to 5.8 percent) in 2025. The share of Hispanic families with an unemployed
person (7.7 percent) was little changed over the year. 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 2025, 71.8 percent also had at least one employed
family member, little changed 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
63.2 percent, in 2025. Among families with an unemployed member, Black families remained less
likely to also have at least one family member who was working in 2025 (63.0 percent of
families) than White (73.9 percent), Asian (78.2 percent), and Hispanic (72.9 percent)
families. (See table 1.)

In 2025, 5 percent of married-couple families had an unemployed member, which was less than
the shares for families maintained by women (9 percent) and for families maintained by men
(8 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 (56.0
percent and 63.8 percent, respectively) than married-couple families (81.4 percent). (See
tables 2 and 3.)

Families and Employment

The share of families with at least one employed family member decreased by 0.3 percentage
point to 79.8 percent in 2025. The likelihood of having an employed family member changed
little over the year for Black (80.1 percent), Asian (87.8 percent), and Hispanic (87.4
percent) families. This likelihood decreased by 0.4 percentage point for White families (to
78.9 percent) in 2025. White families were the least likely to have an employed family member.
(See table 1.)

The share of families with an employed member decreased for married-couple families by 0.5
percentage point to 79.1 percent in 2025. The share of families maintained by men with an
employed member (86.2 percent) increased by 1.4 percentage points over the year, while the
share of families maintained by women with an employed member (79.2 percent) was little
changed. 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
about equally likely to include an employed member. (See table 2.)

In 2025, both spouses were employed in 49.1 percent of married-couple families, 0.5 percentage
point lower than the prior year. Only one spouse was employed in 23.4 percent of married-couple
families. (See table 2.)

Families with Children

In 2025, 32.9 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
91.6 percent of families with children, little changed from the prior year. Among
married-couple families with children, 97.4 percent had at least one employed parent in 2025,
and in 66.3 percent of these families both parents were employed. Among families maintained by
fathers, 86.6 percent of fathers were employed, up from 84.8 percent in 2024. This was a
larger share than the 75.6 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 73.9 percent in 2025, little changed from
the prior year. The participation rate for fathers with children under age 18 was also little
changed at 93.7 percent in 2025. (See table 5.)

The participation rates for married mothers and for married fathers (72.1 percent and 94.4
percent, respectively) changed little in 2025. The rates for mothers and fathers with other
marital statuses (78.1 percent and 89.8 percent, respectively) were also little changed from
the previous year. Married mothers remained less likely to participate in the labor force in
2025 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 2025, 68.0 percent of mothers with children under age 6
participated in the labor force compared with 78.2 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 (95.3 percent
versus 92.5 percent). (See table 5.)

In 2025, the unemployment rates for both mothers and fathers changed little (3.7 percent and
2.5 percent, respectively). The unemployment rate for married mothers remained considerably
lower than the rate for mothers with other marital statuses in 2025--2.4 percent compared with
6.3 percent. Married fathers also continued to have a lower unemployment rate than fathers
with other marital statuses (2.1 percent versus 4.7 percent). Among mothers who had children
under age 3, the unemployment rate for those with other marital statuses was more than three
times higher than that for married mothers (8.9 percent versus 2.5 percent). (See tables 5 and
6.)

Employed fathers remained more likely to work full time than employed mothers in 2025--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 2025, 80 percent of
employed mothers with children ages 6 to 17 worked full time compared with 77 percent of
mothers with children under age 6. However, employed fathers of older children and those with
younger children were about equally likely to work full time (95 percent and 96 percent,
respectively). (See table 5.)