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BLS Now Publishing Monthly and Quarterly Labor Force Data for Detailed Asian Groups

Friday, September 1, 2023

BLS is now providing monthly and quarterly labor force estimates for Asian ethnic groups, including Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Other Asians. For years we’ve published annual labor market estimates for these groups in our yearly report on labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity and in our online database. But we haven’t published our key economic measures—such as the unemployment rate, the employment–population ratio, and the labor force participation rate—on a monthly or quarterly basis.

With the release of the Employment Situation report on September 1, 2023, monthly and quarterly data for these Asian groups became available in the BLS database going back to January 2013. (Only data that are not seasonally adjusted are available for these groups.) These data allow us to see labor market differences among the detailed Asian groups. These differences are associated with many factors, not all of which are measurable. These factors include variations in educational attainment across the groups; the occupations and industries in which the groups work; the geographic areas of the country in which the groups are concentrated, including whether they tend to reside in urban or rural settings; the age distribution of the groups; and the degree of discrimination encountered in the workplace. The availability of monthly and quarterly estimates gives us more timely labor market measures for these groups. However, these groups have relatively small populations, and estimates for them tend to vary a lot from month to month due to small sample sizes. For this reason, this blog will mainly focus on the quarterly data.

Population

People who identified themselves as Asian are further classified as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or Other Asian in the Current Population Survey. The Other Asian category includes people in groups not listed—such as Pakistani, Hmong, and Cambodian—and those who reported two or more Asian groups. The Asian population in the United States has shown significant growth relative to the overall U.S. population. From the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2023, the Asian population age 16 and older grew by 33 percent, nearly four times the growth rate for the overall U.S. population (9 percent). However, this growth varied widely among the Asian ethnic groups. For example, Asian Indians had the largest growth in population during this period, 75 percent, about eight times the national rate. The Other Asian (36 percent), Chinese (31 percent), Vietnamese (28 percent), and Filipino (23 percent) groups also had strong population growth during this period. By contrast, the Korean population and the Japanese population showed little or no growth.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Labor force

The labor force consists of people age 16 and older who are either employed or unemployed. Similar to the population trends, the Asian labor force in the United States increased by 33 percent from the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2023. In the beginning of 2013, the Chinese had the largest labor force among the detailed groups. However, in the decade that followed, Asian Indians had a faster growth rate; about midway through the decade, they became the Asian group with the largest labor force. From the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2023, the Asian Indian labor force nearly doubled from 1.6 million to 2.9 million, while the Chinese labor force increased from 1.9 million to 2.3 million. By contrast, in the first quarter of 2023, Koreans (842,000) and Japanese (508,000) had the fewest people in the labor force among the detailed Asian groups, and their numbers showed little or no growth over the previous 10 years.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Labor force participation rate

The labor force participation rate represents the number of people in the labor force as a percent of the population. Labor force participation rates vary widely among the different Asian ethnic groups. Asian Indians and Filipinos tended to have significantly higher labor force participation rates than the national average from 2013 to 2023, while the Japanese labor force participation rate was consistently below the national average during this period. In the second quarter of 2023, the labor force participation rate was 70.9 percent for Asian Indians and 65.5 percent for Filipinos. By contrast, the rate was 55.2 percent for Japanese. The overall labor force participation rate was 62.6 percent in the second quarter of 2023 for everyone age 16 and older living in the United States. The labor force participation rates for other detailed Asian groups were much closer to the national average. As you can see in the chart, volatility in these rates can be high for these detailed groups. That’s because estimates produced from smaller sample sizes are associated with larger margins of error.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Employment–population ratio

The employment–population ratio measures the percent of the population that is currently working. During the recession that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, employment fell sharply in the second quarter of 2020. The labor market impacts of the 2020 recession varied widely among the different Asian ethnic groups. For example, the Vietnamese employment–population ratio had the steepest drop, 20.0 percentage points, from 60.7 percent in the second quarter of 2019 (before the pandemic), down to 40.7 percent in the second quarter of 2020. By contrast, the employment–population ratio for the total U.S. population fell 7.7 percentage points, from 60.7 percent to 53.0 percent, over the same period.

The labor market recovery from the 2020 recession also varied among the different Asian ethnic groups. By the fourth quarter of 2022, the employment–population ratios for Chinese and Vietnamese remained 2.5 and 2.4 percentage points below their pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, the ratio for the total U.S. population was 1.1 percentage points below its pre-pandemic level in the fourth quarter of 2022. The employment–population ratios for Japanese, Koreans, Asian Indians, Other Asians, and Filipinos have either returned to or surpassed their pre-pandemic levels.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Unemployment rate

Since the data began in 2000, the unemployment rate for Asian Americans has typically been lower than the national average. Before the pandemic, in February 2020, the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.8 percent for the total U.S. population and 2.5 percent for Asians. During the pandemic-induced recession, the national unemployment rate rose sharply in the spring of 2020, reaching 14.4 percent (not seasonally adjusted) in April 2020. This impact varied widely among the different Asian ethnic groups. For example, the unemployment rate for Asian Indians was 8.9 percent in April 2020, lower than the national average of 14.4 percent. By comparison, the unemployment rate for Vietnamese reached 27.6 percent in April 2020, nearly double the national average.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

We need to be careful when analyzing and interpreting monthly and quarterly data for detailed Asian groups because their share of the U.S. population is small and estimates for these groups are based on small sample sizes. For example, the largest of the detailed groups, Asian Indians and Chinese, each comprised about 1.5 percent of the U.S. population age 16 and older in 2022. Those who identify as Japanese or Korean each made up less than 0.5 percent of the population.

Because of small sample sizes for these groups, the month-to-month change in our key economic measures must be fairly large to be statistically significant. On average in recent years, the monthly unemployment rates for the Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, and Other Asians groups required a nearly 2 percentage point change for their differences to be meaningful. The monthly unemployment rates for the Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese groups needed a change of nearly 3 percentage points to be meaningful. These thresholds vary based on factors such as survey response and the unemployment rates for these groups.

Please note that these data are not seasonally adjusted. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical procedure we use to remove the effects of seasonality from data to make it easier to see underlying trends. But not all data can be seasonally adjusted; they must pass a battery of diagnostic tests to be fitted to a seasonal adjustment model. Because these data aren’t seasonally adjusted, it can be challenging to compare one month to the following month or one quarter to the following quarter.

We hope you are as excited as we are about the availability of these data for detailed Asian groups! We also have more Current Population Survey information on race and ethnicity.

 

Percent change in the population age 16 and older, first quarter 2013 to first quarter 2023
Group Percent change

Total United States

8.7

Asian Indian

74.7

Other Asian

35.8

Chinese

30.8

Vietnamese

28.1

Filipino

23.3

Japanese

4.9

Korean

-1.5

 

Number of people in the labor force, quarterly averages, 2013–23, not seasonally adjusted
Quarter Total United States Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese Other Asian

Q1 2013

154,678,000 1,627,000 1,874,000 1,472,000 503,000 768,000 873,000 1,400,000

Q2 2013

155,854,000 1,623,000 1,904,000 1,480,000 445,000 768,000 935,000 1,407,000

Q3 2013

156,234,000 1,663,000 1,824,000 1,527,000 427,000 742,000 1,022,000 1,424,000

Q4 2013

154,790,000 1,710,000 1,868,000 1,503,000 395,000 771,000 956,000 1,423,000

Q1 2014

155,012,000 1,733,000 1,916,000 1,523,000 437,000 802,000 965,000 1,417,000

Q2 2014

155,894,000 1,729,000 1,927,000 1,540,000 436,000 805,000 820,000 1,504,000

Q3 2014

156,637,000 1,849,000 1,902,000 1,429,000 450,000 721,000 860,000 1,517,000

Q4 2014

156,145,000 1,877,000 1,937,000 1,437,000 414,000 754,000 924,000 1,414,000

Q1 2015

156,194,000 1,895,000 1,957,000 1,441,000 421,000 824,000 955,000 1,475,000

Q2 2015

157,519,000 1,769,000 2,097,000 1,630,000 448,000 746,000 882,000 1,530,000

Q3 2015

157,508,000 1,957,000 1,953,000 1,575,000 477,000 718,000 883,000 1,530,000

Q4 2015

157,299,000 1,917,000 1,980,000 1,536,000 441,000 774,000 904,000 1,498,000

Q1 2016

158,160,000 2,118,000 1,952,000 1,613,000 529,000 768,000 822,000 1,582,000

Q2 2016

159,141,000 2,124,000 1,997,000 1,627,000 541,000 727,000 891,000 1,576,000

Q3 2016

160,047,000 2,182,000 2,121,000 1,606,000 461,000 753,000 982,000 1,616,000

Q4 2016

159,401,000 2,159,000 2,151,000 1,701,000 417,000 768,000 1,009,000 1,456,000

Q1 2017

159,357,000 2,317,000 1,931,000 1,684,000 557,000 759,000 897,000 1,529,000

Q2 2017

160,378,000 2,257,000 2,095,000 1,525,000 519,000 803,000 999,000 1,608,000

Q3 2017

161,274,000 2,158,000 2,266,000 1,407,000 439,000 801,000 1,145,000 1,696,000

Q4 2017

160,270,000 2,290,000 2,118,000 1,548,000 473,000 719,000 1,080,000 1,507,000

Q1 2018

161,026,000 2,458,000 2,162,000 1,578,000 517,000 665,000 1,064,000 1,532,000

Q2 2018

162,107,000 2,468,000 2,200,000 1,513,000 528,000 676,000 1,098,000 1,575,000

Q3 2018

162,534,000 2,310,000 2,319,000 1,461,000 506,000 742,000 1,190,000 1,736,000

Q4 2018

162,633,000 2,303,000 2,390,000 1,583,000 485,000 763,000 971,000 1,753,000

Q1 2019

162,573,000 2,683,000 2,167,000 1,543,000 537,000 805,000 950,000 1,680,000

Q2 2019

162,957,000 2,581,000 2,190,000 1,518,000 536,000 733,000 1,082,000 1,713,000

Q3 2019

164,301,000 2,397,000 2,346,000 1,469,000 536,000 795,000 1,228,000 1,759,000

Q4 2019

164,323,000 2,478,000 2,435,000 1,472,000 461,000 812,000 1,139,000 1,795,000

Q1 2020

163,423,000 2,695,000 2,184,000 1,531,000 520,000 851,000 884,000 1,783,000

Q2 2020

158,229,000 2,526,000 2,257,000 1,394,000 520,000 719,000 890,000 1,702,000

Q3 2020

160,804,000 2,436,000 2,350,000 1,463,000 515,000 797,000 1,024,000 1,954,000

Q4 2020

160,512,000 2,597,000 2,324,000 1,441,000 461,000 775,000 986,000 1,746,000

Q1 2021

159,880,000 2,752,000 2,191,000 1,635,000 435,000 750,000 947,000 1,646,000

Q2 2021

161,051,000 2,614,000 2,187,000 1,521,000 488,000 639,000 1,042,000 1,895,000

Q3 2021

161,999,000 2,539,000 2,408,000 1,581,000 436,000 644,000 1,091,000 1,988,000

Q4 2021

161,886,000 2,629,000 2,456,000 1,562,000 483,000 715,000 1,045,000 1,860,000

Q1 2022

163,608,000 2,733,000 2,265,000 1,572,000 448,000 710,000 1,022,000 1,969,000

Q2 2022

164,206,000 2,656,000 2,537,000 1,518,000 478,000 725,000 1,076,000 1,866,000

Q3 2022

164,918,000 2,851,000 2,442,000 1,522,000 539,000 755,000 1,153,000 1,861,000

Q4 2022

164,416,000 2,605,000 2,356,000 1,761,000 536,000 738,000 1,035,000 1,955,000

Q1 2023

166,010,000 2,883,000 2,330,000 1,782,000 508,000 842,000 1,083,000 1,901,000

Q2 2023

166,944,000 3,146,000 2,468,000 1,650,000 486,000 689,000 1,147,000 1,803,000

 

Labor force participation rates, quarterly averages, 2013–23, not seasonally adjusted
Quarter Total United States Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese Other Asian

Q1 2013

63.2 69.5 62.6 69.1 58.4 59.1 65.2 63.8

Q2 2013

63.5 69.4 61.7 67.7 58.6 60.5 66.4 62.7

Q3 2013

63.5 67.5 63.7 68.7 59.6 62.0 65.2 63.1

Q4 2013

62.8 65.8 63.1 68.6 56.2 60.6 62.9 64.7

Q1 2014

62.7 66.7 63.0 68.3 56.8 62.5 63.7 62.3

Q2 2014

63.0 68.5 62.0 66.5 57.3 62.1 62.5 60.4

Q3 2014

63.1 66.9 63.6 67.2 54.9 58.6 64.5 61.0

Q4 2014

62.7 68.4 61.8 67.5 54.6 58.5 59.7 62.5

Q1 2015

62.5 67.0 59.8 68.3 56.2 60.3 61.6 61.4

Q2 2015

62.9 66.4 61.8 68.3 56.0 58.0 62.6 62.9

Q3 2015

62.7 64.6 59.8 67.7 55.1 57.6 66.3 62.0

Q4 2015

62.5 66.3 58.2 68.0 56.7 59.4 61.7 62.6

Q1 2016

62.6 68.8 57.2 67.2 61.0 59.0 61.9 63.0

Q2 2016

62.9 69.5 57.0 66.5 59.7 60.3 64.4 64.6

Q3 2016

63.0 66.9 59.6 69.4 55.3 60.0 63.4 64.5

Q4 2016

62.6 66.3 59.8 69.0 56.5 58.7 61.5 61.5

Q1 2017

62.7 67.8 59.1 67.5 57.8 61.1 63.8 62.9

Q2 2017

62.9 69.1 61.2 64.4 54.7 61.0 64.7 63.5

Q3 2017

63.2 70.1 62.4 66.1 53.3 63.3 64.0 64.0

Q4 2017

62.6 66.9 57.9 67.3 55.6 61.6 65.7 61.9

Q1 2018

62.7 67.5 58.0 66.5 56.3 58.5 65.1 63.7

Q2 2018

63.0 68.6 62.3 63.8 53.8 58.9 64.8 60.7

Q3 2018

63.0 70.5 62.6 64.7 57.0 61.7 63.2 62.0

Q4 2018

62.9 69.2 61.0 65.7 55.0 61.4 61.3 64.4

Q1 2019

62.9 69.1 60.4 67.8 57.8 61.6 61.7 64.9

Q2 2019

63.0 67.3 60.9 65.5 57.4 60.9 61.6 62.0

Q3 2019

63.3 67.4 64.1 65.2 59.3 60.8 63.3 63.1

Q4 2019

63.2 69.4 62.4 65.1 55.0 62.4 63.6 63.8

Q1 2020

62.9 68.4 63.0 62.7 58.8 61.7 61.2 64.0

Q2 2020

60.8 66.7 61.0 60.8 57.6 58.2 53.6 60.2

Q3 2020

61.7 67.0 62.9 62.2 57.1 61.5 61.2 65.8

Q4 2020

61.5 68.0 61.7 61.3 59.9 58.9 57.7 61.8

Q1 2021

61.3 68.5 62.1 62.3 57.0 55.4 63.4 60.2

Q2 2021

61.7 68.7 62.2 64.1 55.6 57.1 59.9 61.9

Q3 2021

61.9 70.0 64.2 65.4 51.5 59.3 60.9 65.9

Q4 2021

61.8 71.2 64.5 63.7 58.4 59.8 62.7 64.3

Q1 2022

62.1 69.2 60.7 62.4 57.6 62.3 62.0 64.3

Q2 2022

62.3 70.3 62.8 65.4 56.3 63.4 62.4 62.4

Q3 2022

62.4 70.4 63.7 67.0 55.8 60.9 62.5 66.3

Q4 2022

62.1 71.0 60.0 66.1 59.2 64.5 61.3 64.3

Q1 2023

62.4 70.5 59.5 67.9 56.1 65.8 63.1 63.8

Q2 2023

62.6 70.9 62.9 65.5 55.2 61.7 62.5 64.1

 

Employment–population ratios, quarterly averages, 2013–23, not seasonally adjusted
Quarter Total United States Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese Other Asian

Q1 2013

58.1 65.2 60.3 64.2 54.9 56.2 62.3 58.4

Q2 2013

58.8 66.5 59.3 63.9 57.4 57.6 62.7 58.7

Q3 2013

58.9 64.6 60.3 65.0 58.5 58.1 61.9 58.4

Q4 2013

58.6 63.4 60.1 65.1 54.6 57.4 59.7 60.6

Q1 2014

58.4 64.0 59.2 64.7 55.8 58.8 60.0 57.8

Q2 2014

59.1 65.9 58.0 63.2 56.1 58.4 58.9 56.4

Q3 2014

59.2 64.3 61.1 64.4 53.0 55.0 61.3 57.8

Q4 2014

59.3 65.7 59.1 64.1 53.6 55.0 56.6 59.2

Q1 2015

58.9 64.6 57.7 65.2 53.6 58.7 59.0 59.2

Q2 2015

59.6 63.8 59.8 65.0 54.7 56.5 59.7 59.6

Q3 2015

59.5 61.6 58.2 65.0 54.5 55.2 63.9 59.3

Q4 2015

59.5 63.4 56.3 65.3 55.7 57.1 60.2 59.5

Q1 2016

59.4 66.2 55.9 64.6 59.6 56.1 58.0 60.1

Q2 2016

59.9 66.8 55.4 64.0 58.8 58.9 60.9 61.3

Q3 2016

59.9 63.7 57.5 66.7 54.1 58.0 60.7 61.7

Q4 2016

59.8 64.0 58.1 67.2 55.5 56.7 60.1 59.5

Q1 2017

59.6 65.3 57.0 65.5 56.1 59.5 61.1 60.2

Q2 2017

60.3 67.4 59.2 62.4 52.8 59.0 61.8 60.5

Q3 2017

60.4 67.6 60.1 63.7 52.3 62.3 61.3 60.0

Q4 2017

60.2 64.6 56.6 65.8 54.6 59.5 64.5 59.4

Q1 2018

60.0 65.3 56.5 64.9 54.8 56.6 63.6 60.7

Q2 2018

60.6 66.8 60.7 61.8 52.7 57.6 63.6 58.7

Q3 2018

60.5 68.9 60.9 62.4 55.2 60.2 61.4 58.6

Q4 2018

60.6 67.1 59.3 63.6 53.5 60.4 60.1 61.6

Q1 2019

60.3 67.2 58.8 65.3 56.8 59.9 59.5 62.1

Q2 2019

60.7 65.7 59.6 63.8 56.8 60.2 60.7 60.2

Q3 2019

61.0 65.7 62.1 63.1 57.9 59.9 62.2 60.7

Q4 2019

61.1 67.8 61.0 63.4 52.6 61.0 62.2 61.5

Q1 2020

60.4 65.5 61.9 60.5 57.6 59.7 59.4 61.4

Q2 2020

53.0 60.5 52.1 51.3 52.2 51.1 40.7 49.5

Q3 2020

56.2 62.2 55.6 55.2 50.1 55.7 54.1 57.6

Q4 2020

57.5 64.3 57.3 55.7 55.8 55.4 54.4 57.6

Q1 2021

57.3 64.7 58.5 59.1 54.1 50.3 60.8 55.8

Q2 2021

58.1 65.5 57.5 60.7 52.4 53.5 57.0 58.7

Q3 2021

58.7 67.1 60.9 62.4 49.3 56.0 58.2 62.6

Q4 2021

59.3 69.4 61.6 60.1 57.0 58.1 60.9 61.4

Q1 2022

59.6 67.0 59.3 60.2 56.4 60.1 60.4 61.7

Q2 2022

60.1 68.1 60.9 63.7 55.5 60.9 60.5 61.1

Q3 2022

60.2 68.7 61.7 65.4 54.4 59.3 60.9 64.0

Q4 2022

60.0 69.5 58.5 63.5 58.5 63.4 59.8 62.5

Q1 2023

60.0 67.9 58.0 65.8 54.1 65.1 61.2 61.5

Q2 2023

60.5 68.9 61.1 63.6 53.7 60.5 60.3 61.9

 

Monthly unemployment rates in 2020, not seasonally adjusted
Month Total United States Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese Other Asian

January

4.0 3.8 2.2 3.0 4.1 3.5 3.3 3.3

February

3.8 3.3 1.0 3.0 0.5 3.2 0.6 3.9

March

4.5 5.4 2.0 4.6 1.3 3.0 4.8 5.1

April

14.4 8.9 12.3 15.3 13.9 13.3 27.6 18.2

May

13.0 9.3 15.4 17.1 5.4 9.2 27.4 19.5

June

11.2 9.7 15.7 14.6 8.9 14.0 17.9 15.7

July

10.5 7.5 12.8 13.1 13.2 10.1 14.5 15.6

August

8.5 7.5 13.8 10.5 12.1 10.0 10.2 11.2

September

7.7 6.6 8.3 10.1 11.6 8.3 9.6 10.4

October

6.6 5.0 8.0 11.7 5.2 4.7 6.7 9.1

November

6.4 5.9 7.2 9.2 8.6 4.5 5.8 6.1

December

6.5 5.5 6.2 6.3 7.1 8.4 4.0 4.5