Work Experience Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, December 19, 2023           	         USDL-23-2616

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


                         WORK EXPERIENCE OF THE POPULATION -- 2022


There were 13.0 million persons who experienced unemployment at some point during 2022,
down significantly from 16.1 million in 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 
reported today. In 2022, labor market conditions continued to recover from the recession
induced by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The proportion of the civilian noninstitutional
population age 16 and over who worked at some time during the year increased by 0.5 
percentage point to 63.8 percent in 2022; this was 1.1 percentage points lower than
the pre-pandemic figure in 2019. 

These data are based on information collected in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement
(ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly survey conducted 
by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ASEC collects 
information on employment and unemployment experienced during the prior calendar year.
Additional information about the CPS and the ASEC, including concepts and definitions,
is provided in the Technical Note.

Highlights from the 2022 data:

 --A total of 169.8 million persons worked at some point during 2022, up by 2.9 million
   from the prior year. (See table 1.)

 --The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2022 was 71.0 percent,
   up by 1.2 percentage points from the prior year. (See table 1.)

 --The "work-experience unemployment rate"--defined as the number of persons unemployed
   at some time during the year as a proportion of the number of persons who worked or
   looked for work during the year--decreased by 1.9 percentage points to 7.6 percent in 
   2022. This is the lowest rate in this series, which began in 1958. (See table 3.)

 --About 2.1 million individuals looked for a job but did not work at all in 2022, down
   by 790,000 from the prior year. (See table 3.)

Persons with Employment

Overall, 63.8 percent of the population worked in 2022, up from 63.3 percent in 2021. In
2022, the percentage of women who worked at some time during the year increased by 0.5
percentage point to 58.9 percent, and the percentage of men who worked at some time during
the year edged up by 0.3 percentage point to 68.8 percent. However, men remained more likely
to work at some time during the year than did women. (See table 1.)

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, Hispanics (66.6 percent) and Asians (65.5 percent)
were more likely to have worked in 2022 than Whites (63.7 percent) and Blacks (62.9 percent).
The proportion of Blacks who worked at some time during the year increased by 1.7 percentage
points from the prior year, while the proportions for other groups were little changed. 
(See table 2.) 

Among those with work experience in 2022, 81.9 percent usually worked full time, essentially
unchanged from a year earlier. Men remained more likely to work full time than women (86.7
percent versus 76.4 percent). Blacks (84.8 percent) and Asians (84.2 percent) remained
more likely to work full time than Whites (81.4 percent) and Hispanics (82.0 percent). 
(See tables 1 and 2.)

Of those who worked during 2022, 80.6 percent were employed year round (working 50 to 52
weeks, either full or part time), up by 1.5 percentage points from 2021. The share of men
working year round increased to 82.4 percent, and the share of women working year round 
increased to 78.6 percent. Asians (83.0 percent) were more likely to work year round than
Whites (80.6 percent), Blacks (80.3 percent), and Hispanics (79.6 percent). (See tables 1 
and 2.)

Persons with Unemployment

Overall, 171.8 million persons worked or looked for work in 2022, up by 2.1 million from 
the prior year. The number who experienced some unemployment decreased by 3.1 million to 
13.0 million. (See table 3.)

The work-experience unemployment rate (those looking for work during the year as a percentage
of those who worked or looked for work during the year) continued to decline. In 2022,
the work-experience unemployment rate fell by 1.9 percentage points to 7.6 percent--this
is the lowest rate in the history of the series, which began in 1958. (See table 3.) 

In 2022, men continued to have a higher work-experience unemployment rate than women, at
7.9 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively. The rates for both men and women declined from
the prior year. (See table 3.) 

The work-experience unemployment rate decreased for all the major race and ethnicity groups
in 2022. Work-experience unemployment rates for Blacks (10.2 percent) and Hispanics (9.5
percent) were higher than those for Whites (7.1 percent) and Asians (6.3 percent). Among 
Whites and Blacks, the rate for men was higher than the rate for women, while among Asians
and Hispanics the rates for men and women were little different from each other. (See
table 4.)

The number of individuals who both worked and experienced unemployment in 2022 was 10.9
million, a decline of 2.4 million from the previous year. Among these workers, 43.3 percent
looked for work for 15 weeks or more, down from 51.8 percent the year before. Additionally,
20.5 percent had two or more spells of unemployment, little changed from the prior year.
The number of persons who looked for a job but did not work at all in 2022 declined to
2.1 million. Among those who did not work at all, 61.0 percent looked for work for 15 weeks
or more, down from 70.3 percent in 2021. (See table 3.)