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Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2022

In 2022, the labor market continued to rebound from the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall unemployment rate (jobless rate) for the United States declined by 1.7 percentage points to 3.6 percent from 2021 to 2022. This rate differed little from its pre-pandemic value of 3.7 percent in 2019. However, the rate varied across race and ethnicity groups in 2022. Among the race groups, jobless rates were higher than the national rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives (6.2 percent), Blacks or African Americans (6.1 percent), and people categorized as being of Two or More Races (5.5 percent). The unemployment rate for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (4.0 percent) was little different from the overall unemployment rate in 2022. The jobless rates for Asians (2.8 percent) and Whites (3.2 percent) were lower than the national rate. The rate for people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity was 4.3 percent, compared with the rate of 3.5 percent for non-Hispanics. (See tables 1 and 2.)

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 age distribution; 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 a set of 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 sample 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: 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 2022.

Composition of the labor force

By race, Whites made up the majority 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 about 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 (5 percent). The remainder—18 percent—were classified as Other Asians, including individuals in an Asian group not listed above—such as Pakistani, Cambodian, Hmong, and others—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 19 percent of the total labor force in 2022. Almost 9 in 10 Hispanics in the labor force were White (89 percent). Another 5 percent were Black, and 1 percent were Asian. 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 represented 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively, of the Hispanic labor force. An additional 4 percent were classified as Other Hispanic or Latino. (See table 2.)

Labor force participation

Among the race and ethnicity groups in 2022, the percentage of the population either employed or unemployed—the labor force participation rate—was highest for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (66.6 percent), Hispanics (66.3 percent), and people who are of Two or More Races (65.3 percent). The participation rate for Asians was 64.5 percent; Blacks, 62.2 percent; Whites, 62.0 percent; and American Indians and Alaska Natives, 59.7 percent. (See tables 1, 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 the most likely to be in the labor force, with a participation rate of 79.5 percent, and Blacks were the least likely, with a rate of 68.0 percent. The labor force participation rate was 74.9 percent and 70.1 percent for Asian adult men and White adult men, respectively. Among adult women, Blacks (62.0 percent) were more likely to participate in the labor force than were Hispanics (59.9 percent), Asians (59.5 percent), and Whites (57.1 percent). Among teenagers (16 to 19 years), Whites were more likely to participate in the labor force than were other groups, with a participation rate of 39.0 percent, followed by Hispanic teens (33.2 percent) and Black teens (29.8 percent). Asian teens were the least likely to participate in the labor force at 23.0 percent. (See table 3.)

Employment

Among the race and ethnicity groups, the employment-population ratio (the number of employed people as a percentage of the population) ranged from a high of 63.9 percent for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders to a low of 56.0 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives. The employment-population ratio was 63.5 percent for Hispanics, 62.7 percent for Asians, 61.7 percent for individuals of Two or More Races, 60.0 percent for Whites, and 58.4 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 (76.5 percent). Black men had the lowest (64.1 percent), also continuing a longstanding employment pattern. The employment-population ratios for Asian adult men and White adult men were 72.9 percent and 68.0 percent, respectively. Among adult women, the ratios continued to show less variation compared with their male counterparts across the major race and ethnicity groups: 58.5 percent for Blacks, 58.0 percent for Asians, 57.4 percent for Hispanics, and 55.4 percent for Whites. (See table 3.)

The employment-population ratio among teenagers (16 to 19 years) continued to be higher for Whites than for Asians, Blacks, or Hispanics. The ratio for White teens (35.2 percent) is about 14.0 percentage points higher than the ratio for Asian teens (20.8 percent), 11.0 percentage points higher than for Black teens (24.5 percent), and about 6.0 percentage points higher than for Hispanic teens (29.3 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 93 percent each for Whites, Blacks, and Asians in 2022. For Hispanics, the share of the labor force with at least a high school diploma was 80 percent. Asians were the most likely of the groups to have graduated from college: 68 percent of Asians in the labor force had a bachelor’s degree and higher, compared with 44 percent of Whites, 34 percent of Blacks, and 25 percent of Hispanics. (See table 6 and chart 2.)

Higher levels of educational attainment are generally associated with a greater likelihood of employment, and a lower likelihood of unemployment. For all major race and ethnicity groups except Asians, jobless rates for people with a bachelor’s degree and higher were lower than the rates for those with lower levels of educational attainment. For Asians, the unemployment rate for those with an associate’s degree was little different from the rate for those with a bachelor’s degree and higher. (See table 6.) Individuals with higher levels of education are also more likely to be employed in higher paying jobs—such as those in management, professional, and related occupations—than are individuals with less education. For example, median earnings of people 25 years and older increased with educational attainment across all the major race and ethnicity groups. (These earnings comparisons are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining earnings differences.) (See table 17.)

Occupation

In 2022, 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, 35 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, 29 percent of Blacks, and 22 percent of Hispanics. In addition, 18 percent of Black and Hispanic men worked in service occupations, compared with 12 percent of White men and 11 percent of Asian men. Employed Black men (28 percent) and Hispanic men (21 percent) also were more likely than White men (17 percent) and Asian men (12 percent) to work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations. Twenty-seven percent of employed Hispanic men worked in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, compared with 18 percent of employed White men, 10 percent of employed Black men, and 4 percent of employed 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 worked in these occupations, 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 50 percent of Blacks, 44 percent of Whites, and 36 percent of Asians.

Hispanics accounted for 19 percent of total employment. However, they were substantially overrepresented in several detailed occupational categories, including painters and paperhangers (59 percent), construction laborers (51 percent), maids and housekeeping cleaners (51 percent), landscaping and groundskeeping workers (47 percent), and carpenters (42 percent). Blacks made up 13 percent of all employed workers, but were substantially overrepresented in several detailed occupational categories, including nursing assistants (36 percent), security guards and gambling surveillance officers (35 percent), and home health aides (33 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 (65 percent), software developers (36 percent), computer programmers (21 percent), and taxi drivers (20 percent). Whites comprised 77 percent of all employed people and accounted for 95 percent of farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers; construction managers (90 percent); and carpenters (89 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 to work in transportation and utilities (16 percent) than were Hispanics (9 percent), Whites (8 percent), and Asians (8 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). (See table 9.)

A large share of employed women across all race and ethnicity groups worked in education and health services: Blacks (40 percent), Whites (35 percent), Asians (32 percent), and Hispanics (29 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 (10 percent), Asian women (9 percent), and Black women (8 percent).

Family and parents

Asian families and Hispanic families were more likely to have at least one family member employed (88 percent and 87 percent, respectively) in 2022, than were Black families (80 percent) and White families (79 percent). (See table 10.)

Families maintained by women accounted for 41 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 (88 percent). By comparison, 82 percent of Hispanic families, 79 percent of White families, and 76 percent of Black families that were maintained by women had at least one employed family member. In general, families maintained by men were more likely than married-couple families or families maintained by women 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 (77.9 percent) than were White mothers (72.3 percent), Asian mothers (70.3 percent), and Hispanic mothers (64.1 percent). (See table 11.)

Across all the 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. The labor force participation rates for these fathers were 93.7 percent for White men, 93.2 percent for Hispanic men, 92.9 percent for Asian men, and 88.4 percent for Black men.

Unemployment

The overall unemployment rate (jobless rate) for the United States declined by 1.7 percentage points to 3.6 percent from 2021 to 2022, rebounding from the recession caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pre-pandemic jobless rate was 3.7 percent in 2019. But the rate varied across race and ethnicity groups. In 2022, the unemployment rate averaged 6.2 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives; 6.1 percent for Blacks; 5.5 percent for people of Two or More Races; 4.0 percent for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders; 3.2 percent for Whites; and 2.8 percent for Asians. The unemployment rate was 4.3 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 5.8 percent), while Whites (3.0 percent) and Asians (2.7 percent) were the least likely. The jobless rate for Hispanic men was 3.8 percent. Among adult women, the unemployment rate for Asians (2.6 percent) was little different than the rate for Whites (2.9 percent). The rates for Hispanics (4.1 percent) and Blacks (5.6 percent) were higher than for the other groups. Among teenagers (16 to 19 years), the unemployment rate was 17.7 percent for Blacks, 11.5 percent for Hispanics, 9.7 percent for Whites, and 9.6 percent for Asians. (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 10.5 weeks and 10.4 weeks, respectively, whereas the figure was 7.9 weeks each for Whites and Hispanics. (See table 13.)

Of the 6.0 million people unemployed in 2022, 46.1 percent were job losers (defined as workers who were on temporary layoff, lost their jobs permanently, or who had completed temporary jobs). Reentrants to the labor force (31.5 percent), job leavers (14.3 percent), and new entrants (8.0 percent) accounted for the rest of the unemployed. Of the total unemployed for each major race and ethnicity group, 47.8 percent of Hispanics, 47.6 percent of Whites, 45.5 percent of Blacks, and 39.1 percent of Asians were job losers. (See table 14.)

Not in the labor force

Blacks made up 13 percent of the civilian labor force and 24 percent of people marginally attached to the labor force in 2022. 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 proportional 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.

Blacks also made up a high proportion of discouraged workers (27 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. (See table 15.)

Earnings

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, Hispanics and Blacks continued to have considerably lower earnings than Whites and Asians in 2022. The median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers in 2022 were $823 for Hispanics, $878 for Blacks, $1,085 for Whites, and $1,401 for Asians. The earnings for White men ($1,172), Black men ($921), and Hispanic men ($887) were 75 percent, 59 percent, and 57 percent, respectively, of the earnings of Asian men ($1,559). The median earnings of White women ($973), Black women ($835), and Hispanic women ($761) were 79 percent, 68 percent, and 62 percent, respectively, of the earnings of Asian women ($1,234). (These earnings comparisons are broad and do not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences, such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience, specialization, and educational attainment.) (See table 16.)

The earnings disparity across the major race and ethnicity groups for men holds for most of the major occupational groups. For example, median usual weekly earnings of Asian men ($1,994) and White men ($1,730) working full time in management, professional, and related occupations (the highest paying major occupational group) were considerably higher than the earnings of Hispanic men ($1,434) and Black men ($1,395) in the same occupational group. However, median usual weekly earnings of White men ($790) and Asian men ($763) working full-time in service occupations were relatively close to the earnings of Black men ($703) and Hispanic men ($699) in the same occupational group. (See table 18.)

The earnings disparity across the major race and ethnicity groups for women also holds for most of the major occupational groups. Median usual weekly earnings of Asian women ($1,631) and White women ($1,284) working full time in management, professional, and related occupations were higher than the earnings of Hispanic women ($1,142) and Black women ($1,127) in the same occupational group. By contrast, median weekly earnings for women by race and ethnicity group were relatively close for service occupations: $661 for Asians, $644 for Whites, $632 for Blacks, and $613 for Hispanics.