Figure WORK 2. Percentage of All Persons Ages 18 to 65 with No More than a High School Education Who Were Employed: 1969-2001
Source: ASPE tabulations of March CPS data.
- Employment rates for women with a high school education or less dropped in 2001, following several years of rising employment, particularly among black and Hispanic women. Low-skilled white women continued to have the highest employment level (67 percent in 2001) among the three racial/ethnic groups.
- Employment levels for white and Hispanic men with no more than a high school education have hovered close to 85 percent for close to two decades. In contrast, employment levels for low-skilled black men have varied over the same period. Between 1968 and 1983, employment rates for black men with no more than high school education fell by 20 percentage points. Since 1992, these rates have remained fairly stable at around 71 percent.
- As shown in Figure and Table WORK 2, employment levels for black men with a high school education or less were 6 percentage points higher than those of similarly educated black women in 2001. In contrast, there was a 17 percentage point difference in employment levels of white men and white women with a high school education or less, and a 26 percentage point difference between similarly educated Hispanic men and Hispanic women.
Table WORK 2. Percentage of All Persons Ages 18 to 65 with No More than a High School Education Who Were Employed at Any Time: 1969-2001
Note: All data include both full and partial year employment for the given calendar year. Race categories include those of Hispanic origin for all years. Hispanic origin was not available until 1975.
Source: ASPE tabulations of March CPS data.
| Men | Women | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note: All data include both full and partial year employment for the given calendar year. Race categories include those of Hispanic origin for all years. Hispanic origin was not available until 1975. Source: ASPE tabulations of March CPS data. |
||||||
| White | Black | Hispanic | White | Black | Hispanic | |
| 1968 | 92.8 | 89.9 | N/A | 55.8 | 65.8 | N/A |
| 1969 | 92.1 | 89.2 | N/A | 56.1 | 64.9 | N/A |
| 1971 | 90.9 | 86.1 | N/A | 55.2 | 59.4 | N/A |
| 1972 | 91.1 | 84.3 | N/A | 55.6 | 58.1 | N/A |
| 1975 | 88.2 | 78.8 | 86.2 | 58.3 | 57.2 | 49.7 |
| 1977 | 88.3 | 78.6 | 89.8 | 59.8 | 57.4 | 51.4 |
| 1979 | 88.6 | 78.5 | 89.4 | 62.3 | 58.7 | 55.0 |
| 1980 | 88.0 | 75.3 | 87.4 | 62.3 | 57.4 | 53.0 |
| 1981 | 87.3 | 74.4 | 87.9 | 62.3 | 57.7 | 52.1 |
| 1982 | 85.4 | 71.3 | 85.4 | 60.7 | 56.2 | 50.6 |
| 1983 | 84.8 | 69.9 | 84.6 | 61.4 | 55.3 | 50.8 |
| 1984 | 86.1 | 71.6 | 83.9 | 62.9 | 58.4 | 53.1 |
| 1985 | 85.7 | 74.5 | 84.1 | 63.7 | 59.4 | 52.4 |
| 1986 | 86.3 | 74.2 | 86.7 | 64.4 | 60.3 | 53.0 |
| 1987 | 86.6 | 73.9 | 85.6 | 65.8 | 59.9 | 54.0 |
| 1988 | 86.5 | 74.1 | 87.8 | 66.4 | 61.3 | 54.6 |
| 1989 | 86.6 | 74.0 | 86.2 | 67.2 | 60.9 | 55.8 |
| 1990 | 87.4 | 75.6 | 85.4 | 66.8 | 60.4 | 55.0 |
| 1991 | 86.2 | 73.9 | 85.0 | 66.5 | 60.7 | 54.6 |
| 1992 | 85.5 | 71.4 | 83.7 | 65.9 | 57.8 | 53.3 |
| 1993 | 84.4 | 71.1 | 83.5 | 66.1 | 59.9 | 52.2 |
| 1994 | 84.7 | 69.3 | 83.2 | 66.6 | 60.7 | 53.3 |
| 1995 | 85.5 | 70.2 | 83.3 | 67.0 | 59.7 | 53.9 |
| 1996 | 85.6 | 70.0 | 84.0 | 67.7 | 63.6 | 55.4 |
| 1997 | 85.3 | 71.8 | 85.0 | 67.7 | 66.1 | 56.9 |
| 1998 | 85.4 | 71.9 | 85.5 | 67.9 | 66.8 | 57.1 |
| 1999 | 85.0 | 72.2 | 86.4 | 68.9 | 68.3 | 58.8 |
| 2000 | 85.1 | 72.9 | 86.5 | 68.6 | 67.4 | 61.0 |
| 2001 | 83.9 | 70.6 | 85.5 | 67.4 | 64.6 | 59.2 |
View full report
"title-TOC.pdf" (pdf, 289.11Kb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®
View full report
"ch1.pdf" (pdf, 268.53Kb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®
View full report
"ch2.pdf" (pdf, 1.71Mb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®
View full report
"ch3.pdf" (pdf, 2.3Mb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®
View full report
"apa.pdf" (pdf, 10.43Mb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®
View full report
"apb.pdf" (pdf, 158.5Kb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®
View full report
"apc.pdf" (pdf, 489.7Kb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®