A profile of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. labor force

According to data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 3.0 million American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs) accounted for 1.2 percent of the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over in 2021.¹ The unemployment rate of AIANs was 8.2 percent in 2021, notably higher than the rate of 5.3 percent for the country. At the same time, AIANs were slightly less likely to be working or looking for work; 60.5 percent of them participated in the labor force, compared with 61.7 percent for the total population. Throughout the history of the series, AIANs had higher unemployment rates and lower labor force participation rates than the total population (comparable data for AIANs are available back to 2003).² (See charts 1 and 2.) A closer look at how these measures vary by demographic and other characteristics—such as age, educational attainment, and area of residence—can shed light on how AIANs fared in the labor market during the period that included the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because the sample size for AIANs is relatively small, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not routinely tabulate detailed data on their demographic and labor market characteristics. The AIAN population is very diverse; its members have origins in hundreds of distinct and culturally diverse peoples from throughout North and South America. Over 500 tribes are federally recognized within the contiguous 48 states and Alaska, and many more are either not recognized or are recognized by states only.³

In the remainder of this article, multiple years of data are pooled from the monthly CPS to examine the labor market characteristics of AIANs. This pooling increases the sample size and allows for a more thorough examination of AIAN data. Unless noted otherwise, I present CPS estimates that are 36-month averages for the period from January 2019 to December 2021, describing the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. In the CPS, individuals are asked what race they consider themselves to be; AIAN status is based on responses to this question rather than on tribal membership.⁴

In this article, I first explore the demographic characteristics of AIANs. Next, I examine their labor force participation by various characteristics. Third, I analyze employment—focusing on occupation, public-sector employment, and hours of work—and unemployment data. Last, I discuss people who, while not participating in the labor force, want a job and may have some labor market attachment even though they are not looking for work. In line with other CPS published data on race, the estimates in this article are for people who consider their race to be AIAN only. (Selected statistics for the broader group—AIAN alone or in combination with another race—are not part of the analysis but are shown in the appendix.) This article serves as an update to a 2019 article coauthored by Mary Dorinda Allard and Vernon Brundage Jr. that presented estimates from 2016 to 2018.⁵

Characteristics of the AIAN population

Because labor market behavior can be influenced by demographic and other factors, it is especially useful to examine the characteristics of the AIAN population. In this section, I explore a variety of demographic and other characteristics of AIANs.

Age

In 2019–21, AIANs had a younger age profile than the overall population, as they were more likely to fall into the youth category (ages 16 to 24) or the prime-working-age group (ages 25 to 54). During this period, 19 percent of AIANs were ages 16 to 24, about 5 percentage points higher than the estimate for the overall population. AIANs were also more likely to be ages 25 to 54, with 54 percent of them falling in this category. This percentage compares with 49 percent of the overall population who were ages 25 to 54. By contrast, 28 percent of AIANs were 55 years of age and over, 9 percentage points below the country’s average. (See table 1.) According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the life expectancy of non-Hispanic AIANs is 10.9 years lower than that of the overall population.⁶

Disability

The likelihood of having a disability increases with age.⁷ Despite the younger age profile of AIANs, they were more likely to have a disability (15 percent) than the overall population (12 percent) in 2019–21. The differences are even more noticeable among older age groups. Among people 55 years of age and over, 31 percent of AIANs had a disability compared with 22 percent of the overall population. The incidence of disability among younger age groups was also slightly higher for AIANs. (See chart 3.)

School enrollment and educational attainment

Traditionally, people ages 16 to 24 are the most likely to be enrolled in school. In this age group, 45 percent of AIANs were enrolled in high school or college in 2019–21, which is lower than the national average of 52 percent. Mirroring the pattern of the overall population, young AIAN women were more likely than young AIAN men to be enrolled in school. (See chart 4.)

Most people have completed their schooling by age 25. In 2019–21, AIANs had lower levels of educational attainment than the population as a whole. Among AIANs 25 years of age and over, 17 percent had less than a high school diploma, compared with about 9 percent of the overall population. In addition, 18 percent of AIANs had a bachelor’s degree and higher, almost half of the national average. (See table 1.)

As was the case for the overall population, AIAN women tended to have higher educational attainment than AIAN men. A little over half (53 percent) of AIAN women had at least some college or a postsecondary degree, compared with 44 percent of AIAN men. However, AIAN men and women both had lower levels of educational attainment than the national average.

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity

In 2019–21, AIANs were more likely to be Hispanic (33 percent) than the overall population (17 percent). Hispanic or Latino ethnicity is distinct from race as defined in the Office of Management and Budget’s “Revisions to the standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity.”⁸ People of Hispanic ethnicity may be of any race.

Nativity

In 2019–21, 15 percent of AIANs were foreign born.⁹ This share was slightly smaller than the share for the total population (17 percent). The AIAN race category refers to individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America).¹⁰ In 2019–21, the majority of foreign-born AIANs were born in Mexico, and smaller shares were born in other Central American countries, Canada, and South America. Foreign-born AIANs were much more likely to be Hispanic (84.1 percent) than were native-born AIANs (23.3 percent).

Area of residence

Most AIANs do not reside in AIAN areas (federal or state American Indian reservations or off-reservation trust lands, tribal statistical areas, or Alaska Native village statistical areas).¹¹ In 2019–21, just over one-quarter of AIANs (27 percent) resided in such areas.¹²

AIANs residing in an AIAN area tended to be older than AIANs living elsewhere. Among AIANs 55 years of age or over, 32 percent resided in an AIAN area, compared with 26 percent who lived elsewhere. (See chart 5.)

In 2019–21, AIANs were less likely to participate in the labor force (to be working or looking for work) than the overall population: 60.2 percent compared with 62.2 percent. (See table 2.) Nevertheless, participation rates varied considerably by demographic characteristics.

Age

Among 16- to 24-year-olds, labor force participation is closely tied to their school enrollment, as youth enrolled in school are much less likely to participate in the labor force than youth who are not enrolled. Among both those enrolled and those not enrolled in school, AIAN youth were less likely to participate in the labor force than were youth overall. In 2019–21, enrolled AIAN youth had a participation rate of 27.6 percent, 7.5 percentage points lower than the rate for all enrolled youth. The rate for nonenrolled AIAN youth, at 68.9 percent, was 8.1 percentage points lower than that for nonenrolled youth overall. The participation rate for all AIAN youth, including the enrolled and the nonenrolled, was 50.4 percent, 4.7 percentage points lower than that for all 16- to 24-year-olds. (See chart 6.)

For both AIANs and the population as a whole, labor force participation rates were highest among 25- to 54-year-olds. AIANs in this prime-working-age group had a participation rate of 74.5 percent, 24.1 percentage points higher than the rate for AIAN youth. However, this rate was lower than the rate of 81.8 percent for the total population ages 25 to 54. (See table 2.)

Individuals 55 years of age and over are less likely to be labor force participants than people in the prime-working-age group. In 2019–21, 39.1 percent of AIANs 55 years of age and over participated in the labor force. This rate was little different from the national average for people 55 years of age and over (39.2 percent).

Age is often a factor in explaining differences in labor force participation between groups. For example, the participation rates of two groups may differ simply because they have a different age composition. The rates of populations with a large share of 25- to 54-year-olds tend to be higher than those of populations less concentrated in that age range. Nonetheless, age does not help explain the low labor force participation of AIANs. AIANs have a younger age profile than the overall population, yet their participation rate is lower than the national average. In 2019–21, the labor force participation rate of AIANs was 2.0 percentage points lower than the rate of the overall population. Also, the rate for 25- to 54-year-olds was 7.3 percentage points lower for AIANs than for the overall population.

Gender

Labor force participation rates differ by gender. As was the case for the overall population, AIAN men were more likely to participate in the labor force than AIAN women—65.6 percent versus 55.1 percent. For both men and women, participation rates for AIANs were below the national average.

Disability

In general, people with disabilities are much less likely to participate in the labor force than people without disabilities, and AIANs with disabilities were no exception.¹³ In 2019–21, 24.4 percent of AIANs with a disability were either working or looking for work, compared with 66.4 percent of AIANs with no disability. AIANs were more likely to have a disability (24.4 percent) than the total population (20.9 percent) during this period. The higher prevalence of disabilities among AIANs may partially explain their lower labor force participation.

Educational attainment

Longstanding historical data show that labor force participation tends to be higher for people with higher educational attainment, and this remains true for AIANs. In 2019–21, AIANs 25 years of age and over with a bachelor’s degree and higher were much more likely to participate in the labor force (75.3 percent) than were those with less than a high school diploma (46.9 percent).

The labor force participation rates for AIANs with lower levels of educational attainment were similar to those for the overall population. For example, the rate for AIANs with less than a high school diploma was 46.9 percent, and the rate for the total population with less than a high school diploma was 45.4 percent. Among those with a bachelor’s degree and higher, the labor force participation rate of AIANs was slightly higher than that of the overall population—75.3 percent versus 72.8 percent.

Nativity

In 2019–21, foreign-born AIANs were more likely to be in the labor force (67.0 percent) than native-born AIANs (59.0 percent). Although this pattern was consistent with that for the total population, foreign-born AIANs were more likely to participate in the labor force than the foreign born overall. By contrast, native-born AIANs were less likely to participate than the native born overall. Thus, the gap between foreign- and native-born participation rates was wider for AIANs (8.0 percentage points) than for the population as a whole (3.5 percentage points).

As discussed above, foreign-born AIANs are overwhelmingly Hispanic. The relatively high labor force participation rate for foreign-born AIANs reflects the characteristics of foreign-born Hispanics, who have higher rates than the foreign born overall.¹⁴

Foreign-born AIAN men had a labor force participation rate of 82.0 percent, almost 20 percentage points higher than that of their native-born counterparts (62.6 percent). For the overall population, foreign-born men were also more likely to be labor force participants than were native-born men (77.2 percent versus 66.4 percent), but the gap between the two groups was almost half of that for AIANs.

Foreign-born AIAN women were less likely than native-born AIAN women to participate in the labor force (50.9 percent versus 55.7 percent). Similarly, foreign-born women in the overall population were less likely to be working or looking for work than were native-born women (53.8 percent versus 57.1 percent).

Area of residence

In 2019–21, 52.4 percent of AIANs who resided in AIAN areas were either working or looking for work. (See table 3.) By contrast, the labor force participation rate for AIANs who did not live in AIAN areas was 63.1 percent while the rate for the total population was 62.2 percent.

Whether they resided in an AIAN area or not, AIANs had younger age profiles than the overall population. However, those living in AIAN areas tended to be older than those living elsewhere. (See chart 5.) This age disparity likely explains, in part, the lower participation rate for those living in AIAN areas. For both men and women and for all age ranges, AIANs living in AIAN areas were less likely to participate in the labor force than those living elsewhere.

Employment

In the following section, I investigate various employment characteristics of AIANs and how they differ from those of the overall population. I also examine selected characteristics of AIAN workers by area of residence.

Occupation

In 2019–21, AIANs were much less likely than the overall population to work in management, professional, and related occupations (28 percent versus 42 percent). (See table 4.) This difference may partially reflect the lower educational attainment and younger age profile of the AIAN population. The likelihood of being employed in management, professional, and related occupations increases with higher educational attainment.

AIANs were more likely than the overall population to work in service occupations (23 percent versus 16 percent). This is an occupational group in which younger workers and workers with lower educational attainment are disproportionately employed. AIANs were also somewhat more likely to work in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (13 percent versus 9 percent) and in production, transportation, and material moving occupations (15 percent versus 12 percent).

Public-sector employment

In 2019–21, the proportion of public-sector workers (people employed in federal, state, local, or tribal government) was higher among AIANs than for the total population (19 percent versus 14 percent). (See chart 7.) Over a third of employed AIANs who resided in AIAN areas worked in the public sector. By contrast, the proportion of AIANs who did not live in AIAN areas and were employed in the public sector was about the same as the national average.

Part-time workers

Most employed people usually work full time, which is defined as working 35 hours or more per week. However, a substantial share of the employed usually work a part-time schedule. In 2019–21, AIANs were just as likely as the overall population to work part time—17 percent. (See table 4.) Mirroring the pattern for the total population, employed AIAN women were about twice as likely to be working part time as were AIAN men (22 percent versus 12 percent).

People who worked less than 35 hours per week for economic reasons—also referred to as involuntary part-time workers—garner considerable attention among labor market analysts. Involuntary part-time workers are defined as those working less than 35 hours per week because their hours have been reduced or because they are unable to find full-time jobs. The percentage of all employed people who involuntarily work part time often serves as an indicator of labor market difficulty. In 2019–21, 4.8 percent of employed AIANs were involuntary part-time workers, higher than the 3.6 percent of workers overall. Employed AIANs who resided in AIAN areas were slightly less likely than those living elsewhere to be employed part time for economic reasons. (See chart 8.)

Usual weekly earnings

Among full-time wage and salary workers in 2019–21, AIANs tended to have lower earnings than the population as a whole. (See table 4.) During this period, 46 percent of AIANs earned less than $750 per week, compared with 33 percent of the total population. At the higher end of the earnings spectrum, 24 percent of AIANs earned $1,200 or more per week, notably lower than the 38 percent for the overall population. (Differences in earnings reflect many factors, such as variations in educational attainment, occupation, industry, and geographic region.)

Unemployment

In 2019–21, the unemployment rate for AIANs was 8.7 percent, 3.0 percentage points higher than the rate of 5.7 percent for the overall population. (See table 5.) Similar to other labor market indicators, the unemployment rate differed across a variety of characteristics.

Demographic characteristics

For almost all major demographic characteristics, the unemployment rates of AIANs and the overall population followed a similar general pattern in 2019–21. People with a disability had higher rates than those without a disability, and jobless rates were higher among youth than among older workers. Additionally, people with a bachelor’s degree and higher had lower unemployment rates than those with less education. The jobless rate for AIAN men (9.1 percent) was higher than the rate for AIAN women (8.2 percent), while the rates for all men and women were the same (5.7 percent). Overall, unemployment rates were higher for AIANs than for the total population for nearly all major demographic characteristics.

Area of residence

In 2019–21, the unemployment rate for AIANs residing in AIAN areas was 10.5 percent. This rate was above that of AIANs who did not live in AIAN areas (8.1 percent). Among AIANs, jobless rates were higher for those living in AIAN areas than for those who lived elsewhere for four groups: men, women, people ages 16 to 24, and people ages 25 to 54. The rate for AIANs 55 years of age and over was not statistically different by area of residence. (See table 3.)

Reasons for and duration of unemployment

During the 2019–21 period, the distribution of the jobless by reason for unemployment was relatively similar for AIANs and the overall population. (See table 6.) Among AIANs, the share of the unemployed who were job losers—that is, people who had lost jobs or who had completed temporary jobs—was 62.2 percent. In 2019–21, 24 percent of unemployed AIANs were reentrants to the labor force, defined as unemployed people who had previously worked but were not in the labor force prior to beginning their job search. In addition, 7 percent of unemployed AIANs were job leavers (people who voluntarily left their jobs), and 7 percent of the AIAN unemployed were new entrants to the labor force (unemployed people who never previously worked).

Duration of joblessness is another measure that can provide insight into how different groups fare relative to one another in the labor market. Among the unemployed, almost one-quarter of AIANs had been jobless for 27 weeks or longer in 2019–21. This proportion was about the same as that for the overall population.

People not in the labor force who want a job

Some researchers have scrutinized the appropriateness of the CPS definition of unemployment for the AIAN population—in particular, the requirement that a person needs to be actively looking for work in order to be classified as unemployed.¹⁵ Active job search methods are those that could result in a job offer without further action on the part of the job seeker, such as filling out a job application, interviewing for a job, or contacting an employer directly about a job.¹⁶ Even if they would like to work, people who are not employed and who are not actively looking for work are not counted as unemployed in the CPS; instead, they are classified as not in the labor force.

Some analyses of the labor market situation of AIANs do not use the CPS definition of unemployment and instead measure the number of people who are not working but want a job.¹⁷ While the CPS does measure the number of people who are not in the labor force but want a job, this measure is not used in official unemployment estimates for two reasons. First, the question about how to measure unemployment has been debated for many years, but a number of internal and external reviews of CPS methodology have concluded that whether people want a job is inherently subjective. A measure based on whether people want a job would not account for many factors people consider before taking a job, such as the nature of the work, hours, and location. In addition, whether a person wants a job may vary with changing labor market conditions or personal circumstances.¹⁸ Second, the primary use of the unemployment rate is to measure the health of the economy, so one of its key features is its sensitivity to the business cycle. That is, the unemployment rate tends to increase during economic downturns and decrease during expansions. The number of people not in the labor force who want a job is much less cyclically sensitive. Classifying these individuals as unemployed could dampen the sensitivity of the unemployment rate.

Even so, CPS estimates of people not in the labor force who want a job can be examined to determine how the inclusion of this category would compare with official measures. As was the case for the overall population, only a small minority of AIANs who were not in the labor force wanted a job in 2019–21. (Many people who are not in the labor force are retired, stay-at-home parents, or students, and they do not want a job.) However, a greater proportion of AIANs wanted a job than the total population. In 2019–21, 9.4 percent of AIANs who were not in the labor force wanted a job, higher than the 6.3 percent for the overall population. (See table 7.)

The percentage of AIANs who were not in the labor force but wanted a job was higher for those not residing in AIAN areas than for those who did live in AIAN areas: 9.9 percent versus 8.1 percent. However, only a small percentage of AIANs not in the labor force wanted a job in both AIAN areas and non-AIAN areas.

What if those who wanted a job were considered among the unemployed? BLS has a long history of producing alternative measures of labor underutilization to provide insight into a broad range of labor market problems encountered by workers. Such measures define unemployment more broadly and more narrowly than the official unemployment rate. One regularly calculated rate includes people who are employed part time for economic reasons, a group widely considered underemployed.¹⁹ While no measure currently produced includes people who want a job among the unemployed, such a measure could be produced by following the same basic idea as that for existing measures. This measure would be calculated as follows:

A measure that includes people not in the labor force who want a job is, expectedly, higher than the unemployment rate. It is especially high for those residing in AIAN areas. However, the alternative measure is also higher than the unemployment rate for the overall population. In percent terms, the increase for AIANs is larger than that of the total population. (See table 7.) Although a measure such as this can certainly be constructed, it is a little less sensitive to economic cycles than the unemployment rate.²⁰

Summary

In this article, I examine the labor force characteristics of AIANs by a variety of demographic and other characteristics. I primarily use Current Population Survey data from 2019 through 2021. During this period, AIANs had a younger age profile than the total population, and people in the prime working ages of 25 to 54 were most likely to be working or looking for work. Also, AIANs were more likely to have a disability and lower educational attainment; both characteristics are associated with lower labor force participation. A closer look at AIANs reveals that their labor force participation was lower than that of the population as a whole across most gender and age groups, but the AIAN rate was higher than the national average for the foreign born. The labor force participation rates of AIANs were similar to those of the overall population across lower educational attainment levels. The rate for AIANs with a bachelor’s degree and higher was slightly higher than that of the population as a whole with that level of educational attainment. AIANs residing in AIAN areas had lower labor force participation rates than those who lived elsewhere.

A greater share of employed AIANs worked in service occupations than the national average, and a smaller share worked in management, professional, and related occupations. AIANs living in AIAN areas were considerably more likely than the population as a whole to work in the public sector.

In general, AIAN unemployment rates were higher than those of the total population for most of the characteristics examined in this article. Among AIANs, rates were particularly high for 16- to 24-year-olds, people with disabilities, and people residing in AIAN areas. The duration of unemployment for AIANs was similar to that of the overall population.

Finally, I investigate alternative measures of the official unemployment rate because some researchers question the usefulness of the official measure for AIANs. I present a possible alternative measure that accounts for people who are not in the labor force but want a job. While this alternative measure produces higher estimates than the official unemployment rate for both AIANs and the total population in the 2019–21 period, the increase for AIANs is, in percent terms, larger than that of the population as a whole.

Appendix

Generally, Current Population Survey data on race are tabulated for people who identify themselves as being of one race only. Thus, all estimates previously cited in this article are for people who identified as AIAN alone, not as AIAN in addition to another race. However, many researchers prefer to use AIAN data that include all those who identify as AIAN, including those who consider themselves as being of more than one race. Selected statistics for this broader group—commonly referred to as AIAN alone or in combination—are presented in this appendix to aid researchers.²¹ (See tables A-1 to A-7.)