-Persons 16 years of age and older
-Source: Current Population Survey (CPS) Special tabulation

• In March 1999, the civilian labor force in the United States (ages 16 and older) totaled 138.4 million workers. About 11.6% of these (or 16.125 million) were black.
  

• The civilian labor force has grown 10.9% since 1990, from 124.8 million workers. The number of blacks in the labor force has grown since 1990 at a higher rate than this - by 18.2%.
  

• Women were 53.4% of the black labor force and 46.5% of the white labor force in March 1998. Black women have been a majority of black workers since 1990.

-Persons 16 years of age and older
-Source: Current Population Survey (CPS)

• About 67.7% of black men, and 63.2% of black women participated in the labor force [2.] The corresponding rates for white men (75.1%) were higher, while those for White women (59.6%) were lower.
  

• Men's participation in the labor force declined during the decade, while womenís increased.
  

• Black women have historically had higher labor force participation rates than white women, but the latter closed the gap in the early 1990s. Black women's labor force participation has risen more rapidly than white womenís since 1997, restoring the gap.

 -Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Unemployment among workers ages 16 and over dropped from an annual rate of 7.8% in 1992 to 4.5% in 1998. Among blacks during this period, unemployment declined from 14.2% in 1992 to 8.2%, and among whites from 6.6% to 3.9%. Rates were slightly lower among workers age 20 and over (see graph).
  

• Of the 128.1 million persons who worked in 1997, 5.8% experienced some unemployment during the year. Of these, about 3 in 10 had two or more spells of joblessness.
  

• Higher percentages of blacks (16.5%) and Hispanics (14.1%) than whites (9.9%) were unemployed at some time in 1997. Among all workers, the median[3] duration of unemployment fell 0.7 weeks to 13.1 weeks in 1997, but these spells were longer for black and Hispanic workers.

 -Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Teenage Unemployment is much higher among teens (ages 16-19) than among adults. Despite the improving economy, it remained very high for young black men (30%) and black women (25%) in 1998.
  

• These high rates reflect difficulties among blacks still enrolled in high school (31% unemployment in data for 16-24 year olds) rather than those enrolled in college (12%) or those not enrolled in school (17%).
  

• Unemployment among teens also peaked in 1992. For African Americans, it reached 42% for men and 37% for women, and was 19% and 16%, respectively, for white men and women.
  

• Youth unemployment rates have also consistently remained at least twice as high for blacks as for whites.
  

• About 2.6 million 16-to-24-year-olds were employed in the summer of 1998. At 25%, black youths' unemployment rate was about 3 times higher than that for whites (8.4%).