page_title: Unemployment in the United States
section_title: Demographics and employment trends
hierarchical_section_title: Unemployment in the United States / Demographics and employment trends
caption_attribution_description: English: Employment trends by race and education, comparing pre-crisis levels with November 2016
context_page_description: Unemployment in the United States discusses the causes and measures of U.S. unemployment and strategies for reducing it. Job creation and unemployment are affected by factors such as economic conditions, global competition, education, automation, and demographics. These factors can affect the number of workers, the duration of unemployment, and wage levels.
context_section_description: Employment trends can be analyzed by any number of demographic factors individually or in combination, such as age, gender, educational attainment, and race. A major trend underlying the analysis of employment numbers is the aging of the white workforce, which is roughly 70% of the employment total by race as of November 2016. For example, the prime working age (25–54) white population declined by 4.8 million between December 2007 and November 2016, roughly 5%, while non-white populations are increasing. This is a major reason why non-white and foreign-born workers are increasing their share of the employed. However, white prime-age workers have also had larger declines in labor force participation than some non-white groups, for reasons not entirely clear. Such changes may have important political implications.
caption: Employment trends by race and education, comparing pre-crisis (Dec 2007) levels with November 2016. The white working-age population fell by 4.8 million over this period as the Boomer's aged, while the working age populations of the other races increased.
exif: {}