Today's Labor Force

The more years of education, the more likely a person will be part of the labor force and the less likely that he or she will be unemployed. In 2005 college graduates had the highest labor force participation (77.9%) and the lowest unemployment rate (2.3%), as reported in Employment and Earnings. On the other hand, those with less than a high school diploma had a labor force participation rate of 45.5% and an unemployment rate of 7.6%. Better-educated workers of any gender or racial group were also more likely to be in the labor force and employed in 2005. College-educated African-Americans were the most likely to be counted among the civilian labor force (82%), while college-educated white workers were the least likely to be unemployed (2.1%). (See Table 1.5.)