Chart: Employment statistics for U.S. populace, 2009 vs. 2008

The proportion of the civilian non-institutional population age 16 and over who worked at some time during 2009 was 64.9 percent, down from 67.0 percent in 2008. The percent of men who worked during 2009 was 70.6 percent, down from 73.1 percent in 2008. The proportion of women who worked at some point during 2009 was 59.6 percent, down from 61.3 percent in the prior year.

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The proportions of whites (65.8 percent), blacks (58.8 percent), Asians (65.2 percent), and Hispanics (65.0 percent) who worked at some time during the year fell in 2009.

This data is from the Current Population Survey (CPS). To learn more, see "Work Experience of the Population — 2009" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1688. This data is based on information collected in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the monthly CPS survey. The ASEC collects information on employment and unemployment experienced during the prior calendar year.