Figure WORK 2. Percentage of All Persons Ages 18 to 65 with No More than a High School Education Who Were Employed: 1969-2002
Source: ASPE tabulations of March CPS data.
- Employment rates for women with a high school education or less continued to drop in 2002, following several years of rising employment, particularly among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women. Low-skilled non-Hispanic white women continued to have the highest employment level (70 percent in 2002) among the three racial/ethnic groups.
- Employment levels for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic men with no more than a high school education have remained close to 85 percent for nearly to two decades. In contrast, employment levels for low-skilled non-Hispanic black men have varied over the same period. Between 1968 and 1983, employment rates for non-Hispanic black men with no more than high school education fell by 20 percentage points. Since 2000, these rates have fallen by more than 5 percentage points.
- As shown in Figure and Table WORK 2, employment levels for non-Hispanic black men with a high school education or less were 3 percentage points higher than those of similarly educated non-Hispanic black women in 2002. In contrast, there was a 13 percentage point difference in employment levels of non-Hispanic white men and women with a high school education or less, and a 28 percentage point difference between similarly educated Hispanic men and women.
Table WORK 2. Percentage of All Persons Ages 18 to 65 with No More than a High School Education Who Were Employed: 1969-2002
| Men | Women | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Hispanic White | Non-Hispanic Black | Hispanic | Non-Hispanic White | Non-Hispanic 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 | 78.1 | 89.2 | 61.4 | 57.6 | 52.2 |
| 1979 | 88.5 | 78.7 | 89.4 | 62.9 | 58.9 | 55.0 |
| 1980 | 88.0 | 75.2 | 86.8 | 64.1 | 57.6 | 53.7 |
| 1981 | 87.4 | 74.5 | 87.6 | 64.0 | 57.5 | 53.0 |
| 1982 | 85.6 | 71.1 | 85.3 | 62.7 | 56.6 | 51.1 |
| 1983 | 84.8 | 70.2 | 85.2 | 63.5 | 55.3 | 51.7 |
| 1984 | 86.5 | 71.9 | 83.9 | 65.0 | 58.9 | 54.0 |
| 1985 | 86.1 | 74.6 | 83.9 | 66.0 | 59.4 | 52.9 |
| 1986 | 86.4 | 74.3 | 86.5 | 66.8 | 61.0 | 54.0 |
| 1987 | 86.7 | 73.9 | 85.6 | 67.3 | 59.9 | 54.0 |
| 1988 | 86.3 | 74.0 | 87.8 | 68.0 | 61.4 | 54.6 |
| 1989 | 87.7 | 75.3 | 86.6 | 68.8 | 61.1 | 55.8 |
| 1990 | 87.7 | 75.6 | 85.4 | 68.5 | 60.7 | 55.0 |
| 1991 | 86.4 | 73.9 | 85.0 | 68.3 | 61.0 | 54.6 |
| 1992 | 85.7 | 71.5 | 83.7 | 67.8 | 57.8 | 53.3 |
| 1993 | 84.6 | 71.2 | 83.5 | 68.6 | 60.0 | 52.2 |
| 1994 | 85.0 | 69.1 | 83.2 | 69.0 | 60.9 | 53.3 |
| 1995 | 85.9 | 70.1 | 83.3 | 69.6 | 60.1 | 53.9 |
| 1996 | 85.9 | 70.3 | 84.0 | 70.2 | 64.1 | 55.4 |
| 1997 | 85.3 | 72.0 | 85.0 | 69.9 | 66.6 | 56.9 |
| 1998 | 85.3 | 71.8 | 85.5 | 70.4 | 67.1 | 57.1 |
| 1999 | 84.5 | 72.0 | 86.4 | 71.4 | 68.4 | 58.8 |
| 2000 | 84.7 | 72.7 | 86.4 | 70.6 | 67.7 | 61.0 |
| 2001 | 83.4 | 69.9 | 85.5 | 69.8 | 64.8 | 59.2 |
| 2002 | 82.5 | 67.3 | 85.1 | 69.5 | 64.4 | 57.5 |
Note: All data include both full and partial year employment for the given calendar year.
Persons of Hispanic ethnicity may be of any race. Beginning in 2002, estimates for Whites and Blacks are for persons reporting a single-race only. Due to small sample size, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians and Native Hawaiians/Other Pacific Islanders are included in the total for all persons but are not shown separately. Hispanic origin was not available until 1975.
Source: ASPE tabulations of March CPS data.
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