Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Latest Data: 2021
Frequency: Annual

The Employment Rate, White represents the percentage of white persons (those having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa) in the civilian non-institutional population (the number of people aged 16 and older who are not incarcerated or on active duty in the military) that is employed.

The Employment Rate, Black represents the percentage of black persons (those having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa) in the state civilian non-institutional population that is employed.

The Employment Rate, Hispanic represents the percentage of hispanic persons (those with Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race) in the state civilian non-institutional population that is employed.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor management dispute, illness, or vacation….The employment-population ratio is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and older that is employed.”

The most recent data comes from the BLS Table: Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population in states by sex, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, marital status, and detailed age

Note: BLS mentions that the 2017 data comes from a preliminary report published by the Current Population Survey (CPS). CPS claims that the final numbers for the labor force participation rates, the employment-population ratios, and the unemployment rates will differ slightly. They also state in their notes to the tables: “Data for demographic groups are not shown when the labor force base does not meet the BLS publication standard of reliability for the area in question, as determined by the sample size. Items may not sum to totals because of rounding. Estimates for the race groups shown in the table do not sum to totals because data are not presented for all races. In addition, persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race and, therefore, are classified by ethnicity as well as by race.”