Today's Labor Force

In 2005, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more workers were employed in managerial or professional jobs (34.7%) than in service occupations (16.3%), sales (25.4%), or administration fields (11.6%). Other leading occupational categories included natural resources, construction, and maintenance (10.8%) and production, transportation, and material moving occupations (12.7%). (See Table 1.18.)

Administrative support and service occupations were more likely to involve women. More than one-fifth (22.4%) of women worked in office and administrative support positions in 2005, compared with only 6.4% of men. In contrast, men dominated such categories as construction and extraction occupations (11.7% of men, compared with 0.4% of women), as well as installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (6.6% of men and 0.3% of women). Men were also more likely than women to work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations. (See Table 1.18.)

According to the BLS in Employment and Earnings, African-Americans were less likely than whites to work in managerial and professional specialties, sales, and natural resources, construction, and maintenance positions. Blacks were more likely than whites to work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations, and in service occupations. African-American women were more likely to be in managerial and professional specialties, sales positions, administrative support positions, and service jobs than black men. (See Table 1.18.)

Nearly one-quarter (23.8%) of Hispanic workers were in service occupations in 2005, and one-fifth (21.5%) were in sales and office occupations. According to Employment and Earnings, nearly two out of ten Hispanic workers (18.6%) were in the production field, and another near-fifth were in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (19.1%). (See Table 1.18.)

In 2005, 17% of workers of Hispanic ethnicity were in the managerial and professional specialty occupations, compared with 26% of African-Americans, 35.5% of whites, and 46.4% of Asian-Americans. Although in TABLE 1.8 Unemployment in families by presence and relationship and relationship of employed of employed members and family type, 2003–04 "Table 3. Unemployment in Families by Presence and Relationship of Employed Members and Family Type, 2003–04 Annual Averages," in Employment Characteristics of Families in 2004, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 9, 2005, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf (accessed January 9, 2006)2005 only 2.1% of Hispanics worked in farming, forestry, and fishing, they were more likely to do so than whites (0.8%), blacks (0.3%), and Asian-Americans (0.2%). (See Table 1.18.)

The BLS also reported in "Characteristics of the Employed" from the Current Population Survey that in 2005 the vast majority of the American workforce were wage or salary earners in nonagricultural industries (129.9 million) as compared with agricultural industries (1.2 million). Of those in the nonagricultural sector in 2005, 9.5 million were designated as self-employed. More people also worked full-time (117 million) than part-time (24.7 million) in 2005. (See Table 1.19.)