Black workers’ views and experiences in the U.S. labor force stand out in key ways
Black workers account for about 13% of all U.S. workers, including those who work full time, part time and are self-employed.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Black workers account for about 13% of all U.S. workers, including those who work full time, part time and are self-employed.
52% of US adults say it is very or somewhat important that companies and organizations make public statements about political or social issues.
Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.
Classes have ended for the summer at U.S. public schools, but a sizable share of teachers are still hard at work at second jobs outside the classroom.
Most Americans like labor unions, at least in the abstract. A majority (55%) holds a favorable view of unions, versus 33% who hold an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. Despite those fairly benign views, unionization rates in the United States have dwindled in recent decades. As of 2017, just 10.7% of all wage and salary workers were union members, matching the record low set in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.
Women in STEM jobs are more likely than their male counterparts to have experienced discrimination in the workplace and to believe that discrimination is a major reason there are not more women in STEM.
Blacks who work in science, technology, engineering and math fields are more likely than STEM workers from other racial or ethnic backgrounds to say they have faced discrimination on the job. They also stand out in their views about workplace diversity.
Allegations about sexual misconduct by prominent men in politics, entertainment, media and other industries have reverberated across the United States in recent months, drawing attention to issues of gender equality in the workplace and in broader American society.
In the U.S., four-in-ten women and roughly a quarter of adults ages 65 and older say they play video games at least sometimes.
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