The labor force participation rate is the percentage of people in the labor force divided by the working-age population. (The labor force is defined as people employed plus people who are unemployed, but looking for work). This chart shows labor force participation by race for residents age 16 and older. Note that there is not enough data to show for the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander category. Labor force participation by race is one way to measure equity, by estimating how much our region's racial and ethnic groups are pursuing job opportunities.
Most racial and ethnic groups had little change in their labor force participation rates between 2023 and 2024. Since 2019, the racial and ethnic groups that have had the most change in labor force participation are: American Indian and Alaska Native (declining from 62.2% in 2019 to 57.6% in 2024), Asian (rising from 65.1% in 2019 to 66.9% in 2024), “some other race” (declining from 65.3% in 2019 to 62.5% in 2024), and “two or more races” (increasing from 64.9% in 2019 to 68.7% in 2024).
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year Estimate[Table code: S2301]
This chart uses 5-year American Community Survey data which is not directly comparable to the 1-year American Community Survey data. The observation year represents that last year of the 5-year survey, for example, year 2022 represents the 5-year survey collection period of 2018-2022. Some race categories have a small sample size, resulting in large observational variances. For some years, data are suppressed and there is a break in the time series.