Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Most full-timers among working poor have one labor market problem

April 23, 2002

People who work full-time—35 hours or more per week—are far less likely to live in poverty than are others. However, almost 3.4 million who were in the labor force at least half of 2000 and usually worked in full-time jobs were classified as working poor.

Labor market problems of full-time wage and salary workers in poverty, 2000
[Chart data—TXT]

There are three labor market problems experienced by these workers: Low earnings, unemployment, and involuntary part-time employment. Low earnings was the most common problem, with 73 percent of these workers facing it, either alone or in conjunction with other labor market problems. About 30 percent of the working poor experienced unemployment, either alone or in conjunction with other problems.

About 25 percent of full-time wage and salary workers classified among the working poor had experienced two or more of the primary labor market problems. The most common combinations were of low earnings and one of the others.

The data in this report are from the Current Population Survey. As defined in this report, the working poor are individuals who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force (working or looking for work), but whose incomes fell below the official poverty level. For more information on the working poor, see A Profile of the Working Poor, 2000 (BLS Report 957).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Most full-timers among working poor have one labor market problem at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2002/apr/wk4/art02.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle