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Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2021

The labor market continued to recover in 2021 from the recession caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall unemployment rate (jobless rate) for the United States averaged 5.3 percent in 2021. However, the rate varied across race and ethnicity groups. Among the race groups, jobless rates were higher than the national rate for Blacks or African Americans (8.6 percent), American Indians and Alaska Natives (8.2 percent), and people categorized as being of Two or More Races (8.2 percent). The unemployment rates for Asians (5.0 percent) and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (6.9 percent) were not much different from the overall unemployment rate in 2021. The jobless rate for Whites (4.7 percent) was lower than the national rate. The rate for people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, at 6.8 percent, was higher than the rate of 5.0 percent for non-Hispanics. (See tables 1 and 2.)

Although the labor market showed improvement in 2021, many measures across the race and ethnicity groups had not yet returned to their pre-pandemic levels.¹ In addition to the effects of the pandemic, there are long-standing labor market differences among the race and ethnicity groups. These differences are associated with many factors, not all of which are measurable. These factors include variations in educational attainment across the groups; the occupations and industries in which the groups work; the geographic areas of the country in which the groups are concentrated, including whether they tend to reside in urban or rural settings; and the degree of discrimination encountered in the workplace.

This report describes the labor force characteristics and earnings patterns among the largest race and ethnicity groups living in the United States—Whites, Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics—and provides detailed data through supporting tables. The report also contains a limited amount of data on American Indians and Alaska Natives; Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders; people who are of Two or More Races; detailed Asian groups; and detailed Hispanic groups. However, because of their relatively small sample sizes, estimates for these additional groups are not included in all tables.

The data were obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that is a rich source of information on the labor force. See the technical notes for definitions of terms and concepts used in this report. Additional information about the CPS can be found at https://www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm.

The sections that follow highlight some of the major findings on the labor force characteristics of race and ethnicity groups in 2021.

Composition of the labor force

By race, Whites made most of the labor force (77 percent). Blacks and Asians constituted an additional 13 percent and 7 percent, respectively. American Indians and Alaska Natives made up 1 percent of the labor force, while Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders accounted for less than half a percent. People who were of Two or More Races made up 2 percent of the labor force. (See table 1.)

Among Asians participating in the labor force, the largest group was Asian Indian, making up 25 percent of all Asians. Chinese made up 22 percent, followed by Filipinos (15 percent), Vietnamese (10 percent), Koreans (7 percent), and Japanese (4 percent). The remainder—18 percent—were classified as Other Asians, a category that includes individuals in an Asian group not listed above—such as Pakistani, Cambodian, Hmong, etc.—and those who were of two or more Asian groups. (See table 2.)

People of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, who may be of any race, made up 18 percent of the total labor force. Almost 9 in 10 Hispanics in the labor force were White (89 percent). Another 4 percent were Black, and 1 percent were Asian. By detailed ethnicity, most Hispanics in the labor force were Mexican (60 percent). Central Americans made up another 11 percent, about one-third of whom were Salvadorans. Eight percent of Hispanics in the labor force were Puerto Rican, and 8 percent were South American. People of Cuban and Dominican ethnicity each represented 4 percent of the Hispanic labor force. An additional 5 percent were classified as Other Hispanic or Latino. (See table 2.)

Labor force participation

Among the race and ethnicity groups, the percentage of the population either employed or unemployed—the labor force participation rate—was highest for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (66.9 percent in 2021), Hispanics (65.5 percent), and people who are of Two or More Races (65.4 percent). The participation rate for Asians was 63.8 percent; Whites, 61.5 percent; Blacks, 60.9 percent; and American Indians and Alaska Natives, 60.5 percent. (See tables 1 and 2, and chart 1.)

Among adult men (20 years and older) in the largest race and ethnicity groups (White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic), Hispanics were more likely to engage in labor force activity than were the other groups, with a participation rate of 79.5 percent, and Blacks were the least likely, with a rate of 66.5 percent. The labor force participation rate was 74.7 percent and 69.9 percent for Asian adult men and for White adult men, respectively. Among adult women, Blacks (60.6 percent) were more likely to participate in the labor force than were Asians (58.8 percent), Hispanics (58.2 percent), and Whites (56.4 percent). Among teenagers (16 to 19 years), Asians (21.2 percent) were less likely to participate in the labor force than were Whites (38.5 percent), Hispanics (32.7 percent), and Blacks (30.3 percent). (See table 3.)

Employment

The employment-population ratio (the proportion of the population that is employed) ranged from a low of 55.5 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives to a high of 62.2 percent for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. The employment-population ratio was 61.1 percent for Hispanics, 60.6 percent for Asians, 60.0 percent for individuals of Two or More Races, 58.6 percent for Whites, and 55.7 percent for Blacks. (See tables 1, 2, 3, 5, and 5A.)

Among adult men (20 years and older) in the largest race and ethnicity groups, Hispanics continued to have the highest employment-population ratio (74.6 percent). Black men had the lowest (60.5 percent), also continuing a longstanding employment pattern. The employment-population ratios for Asian adult men and White adult men were 71.2 percent and 66.7 percent, respectively. Among adult women, the ratios showed less variation across the major race and ethnicity groups: 56.0 percent for Blacks, 55.9 percent for Asians, 54.3 percent for Hispanics, and 53.9 percent for Whites. (See table 3.)

The employment-population ratio among teenagers (16 to 19 years) continued to be higher for Whites than for Hispanics, Asians, or Blacks. The ratio for White teens (34.5 percent) is about 16 percentage points higher than the ratio for Asian teens (18.4 percent), 9 percentage points higher than for Black teens (25.3 percent), and about 7 percentage points higher than for Hispanic teens (27.8 percent).

Educational attainment

Among people 25 years and older, the share of the labor force with at least a high school diploma was more than 90 percent each for Whites, Blacks, and Asians. For Hispanics, the share of the labor force with at least a high school diploma was 78 percent. Asians were the most likely of the groups to have graduated from college: 67 percent of Asians in the labor force had a bachelor’s degree and higher, compared with 43 percent of Whites, 34 percent of Blacks, and 24 percent of Hispanics. (See chart 2.)

Higher levels of education are generally associated with a greater likelihood of employment, and a lower likelihood of unemployment. For all major race and ethnicity groups, jobless rates for people with a bachelor’s degree and higher were lower than for other levels of educational attainment. (See table 6.)

Individuals with higher levels of education are more likely to be employed in higher paying jobs—such as those in management, professional, and related occupations—than are individuals with less education. Median earnings of people 25 years and older increased with educational attainment across all major race and ethnicity groups. Among full-time wage and salary workers, median usual weekly earnings for Blacks ($1,164) and Hispanics ($1,260) with a bachelor’s degree and higher were lower than for Whites ($1,468) and Asians ($1,712). (These earnings comparisons are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences.) (See table 17.)

Occupation

In 2021, 58 percent of employed Asians worked in management, professional, and related occupations—the highest paying major occupational category—compared with 43 percent of employed Whites, 34 percent of employed Blacks, and 25 percent of employed Hispanics. (See table 7 and chart 3.)

Among employed men, 59 percent of Asians worked in management, professional, and related occupations, compared with 39 percent of Whites, 28 percent of Blacks, and 20 percent of Hispanics. About 18 percent of employed Black and Hispanic men worked in service occupations, compared with 11 percent and 12 percent of employed Asian and White men, respectively. Employed Black and Hispanic men also were more likely than White and Asian men to work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations. Twenty-eight percent of employed Hispanic men worked in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, compared with 18 percent of White men, 11 percent of Black men, and 6 percent of Asian men. (See table 7.)

Employed Asian women were more likely than other employed women to work in management, professional, and related occupations: 57 percent of Asian women, compared with 48 percent of White women, 40 percent of Black women, and 30 percent of Hispanic women. Among employed women, 57 percent of Hispanics worked in two major occupational groups—service occupations and sales and office occupations—compared with 51 percent of Blacks, 45 percent of Whites, and 37 percent of Asians.

Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of total employment but were substantially overrepresented in several detailed occupational categories, including painters and paperhangers (59 percent), construction laborers (49 percent), maids and housekeeping cleaners (48 percent), and landscaping and groundskeeping workers (47 percent). Blacks made up 12 percent of all employed workers, but were substantially overrepresented in several detailed occupational categories, including transit and intercity bus drivers (35 percent), nursing assistants (33 percent), security guards and gambling surveillance officers (33 percent), and home health aides (32 percent). Asians accounted for 7 percent of all employed workers but made up a much larger share of workers in several occupational categories, including manicurists and pedicurists (73 percent), software developers (37 percent), computer programmers (22 percent), and financial and investment analysts (21 percent). Whites comprised 78 percent of all employed people and accounted for 95 percent of farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers; construction managers (91 percent); and wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives (88 percent). (See table 8.)

Industry

Among employed men, Hispanics were more likely to work in the construction industry (22 percent) than were Whites (14 percent), Blacks (7 percent), or Asians (4 percent). Employed Black men were more likely than employed men of other race and ethnicity groups to work in transportation and utilities (15 percent). Twenty-two percent of employed Asian men worked in professional and business services, higher than the shares of White men (14 percent), Black men (12 percent), and Hispanic men (12 percent). Similar in trend to their male counterparts, a higher share of Asian women (16 percent) worked in professional and business services compared with White women (12 percent), Hispanic women (12 percent), and Black women (9 percent). Hispanic women were more likely to work in leisure and hospitality (13 percent) than were White women (9 percent), Asian women (9 percent), and Black women (8 percent). A large share of employed women across all race and ethnicity groups worked in education and health services: Blacks (40 percent), Whites (36 percent), Asians (32 percent), and Hispanics (30 percent). (See table 9.)

Family and parents

Asian families and Hispanic families were more likely to have at least one family member employed (86 percent and 85 percent, respectively) in 2021, than were White families (78 percent) and Black families (77 percent). (See table 10.)

Families maintained by women accounted for 42 percent of Black families, 25 percent of Hispanic families, 15 percent of White families, and 12 percent of Asian families. Among families maintained by women, Asian families were the most likely to have an employed family member (85 percent). By comparison, 77 percent of White families, 77 percent of Hispanic families, and 73 percent of Black families that were maintained by women had at least one employed family member. In general, families maintained by women were less likely than married-couple families or families maintained by men to have an employed family member. (See table 10.)

Among mothers living with children under 18 years old, Black mothers were more likely to participate in the labor force (75.9 percent) than White mothers (70.9 percent), Asian mothers (66.6 percent), and Hispanic mothers (61.7 percent). (See table 11.)

Across all race and ethnicity groups, fathers living with children under 18 years were much more likely to be in the labor force than were mothers with children under 18 years. For example, labor force participation rates for these fathers were 94.0 percent for Asian men, 93.3 percent for White men, 93.1 percent for Hispanic men, and 87.2 percent for Black men.

Unemployment

In 2021, the overall unemployment rate for the United States averaged 5.3 percent, but the rate varied across race and ethnicity groups. The unemployment rate averaged 8.6 percent for Blacks; 8.2 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives; 8.2 percent for people of Two or More Races; 6.9 percent for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders; 5.0 percent for Asians; and 4.7 percent for Whites. The unemployment rate was 6.8 percent for Hispanics. (See tables 1, 2, 3, 12, and 12A, and charts 4 and 5.)

Among adult men (20 years and older) in the largest race and ethnicity groups, Blacks were the most likely to be jobless (with an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent), while Whites (4.6 percent) and Asians (4.8 percent) were the least likely. The jobless rate for Hispanic men was 6.1 percent. Among adult women, the unemployment rate for Whites (4.4 percent) was lower than for Asians (5.0 percent), Hispanics (6.8 percent), and Blacks (7.7 percent). Among teenagers (16 to 19 years), the unemployment rate was 16.6 percent for Blacks, 14.9 percent for Hispanics, 13.1 percent for Asians, and 10.5 percent for Whites. (See table 3.)

Unemployed Asians and Blacks experienced longer periods of unemployment than did Hispanics and Whites. The median duration of unemployment for Asians and Blacks was 21.9 weeks and 19.0 weeks, respectively, whereas the figures for Hispanics and Whites were 15.4 weeks and 15.6 weeks, respectively. (See table 13.)

Of the 8.6 million people unemployed in 2021, 59 percent were job losers (workers who were on temporary layoff, lost their jobs permanently, or who completed temporary jobs). Reentrants to the labor force (26 percent), job leavers (9 percent), and new entrants (6 percent) accounted for the rest of the unemployed. Of the total unemployed for each major race and ethnicity group, about 61 percent of Hispanics, 61 percent of Whites, 57 percent of Blacks, and 56 percent of Asians were job losers. (See table 14.)

Not in the labor force

Blacks comprised 13 percent of the civilian labor force and 22 percent of people marginally attached to the labor force in 2021. Those marginally attached to the labor force are individuals who were not in the labor force; wanted to work and were available to work; and had looked for a job sometime in the previous 12 months, but not in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Hispanics and Asians were represented among the marginally attached nearly proportionately to their share of the labor force. Whites were underrepresented among the marginally attached relative to their share of the labor force: they comprised 77 percent of the labor force and 65 percent of the marginally attached. (See table 15.)

Blacks also made up a high proportion of discouraged workers (22 percent) relative to their share of the labor force. Discouraged workers, who represent a subset of the marginally attached, are people not currently looking for work because they believe that no jobs are available for them.

Earnings

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, Hispanics and Blacks continued to have considerably lower earnings than Whites and Asians in 2021. The median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers in 2021 were $777 for Hispanics, $801 for Blacks, $1,018 for Whites, and $1,328 for Asians. The earnings for White men ($1,125), Black men ($825), and Hispanic men ($820) were 77 percent, 57 percent, and 56 percent, respectively, of the earnings of Asian men ($1,453). The median earnings of White women ($925), Black women ($776), and Hispanic women ($718) were 81 percent, 68 percent, and 63 percent, respectively, of the earnings of Asian women ($1,141). (These earnings comparisons are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences, such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience, and specialization.) (See table 16.)

The earnings disparity across the major race and ethnicity groups for men holds for all major occupational groups. For example, median usual weekly earnings of Asian men and White men working full time in management, professional, and related occupations (the highest paying major occupational group), at $1,904 and $1,622, respectively, were considerably higher than the earnings of Hispanic men ($1,353) and Black men ($1,270) in the same occupational group. (See table 18.)

Median weekly earnings for women by race and ethnicity group were relatively close for service occupations: $614 for Asians, $599 for Whites, $594 for Blacks, and $571 for Hispanics. By contrast, in management, professional, and related occupations, the earnings of Asian women ($1,532) were considerably higher than those for White ($1,225), Hispanic ($1,107), and Black ($1,081) women.

¹Roxanna Edwards, Lawrence S. Essien, and Michael Daniel Levinstein, "U.S. labor market shows improvement in 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weigh on the economy,"Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2022,https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2022.16