U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

TED: The Editor's Desk

May 28, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Employment and married-couple families in 2008

Both the husband and wife were employed in 51.4 percent of married-couple families in 2008, compared with 51.7 percent in 2007.

Married-couple families by presence and relationship of employed members, 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Married-couple families in which only the wife worked accounted for 6.9 percent of all married-couple families in 2008, compared with 6.6 percent in 2007.

The husband was the sole employed member in 19.5 percent of families in 2008, compared with 19.8 percent in 2007.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "Employment Characteristics of Families in 2008" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0568. A family is a group of two or more persons residing together who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption.

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