News release: “A total of 152.3 million persons worked at some point during 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over who worked at some time during 2010 was 63.7 percent, down from 64.9 percent in 2009. The number of persons who experienced some unemployment during 2010 decreased by 894,000 to 25.2 million. These data are based on information collected in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ASEC collects information on employment and unemployment experienced during the prior calendar year. Highlights from the 2010 data:

• The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2010 was 64.7 percent, up from 64.0 percent in 2009.
• The “work-experience unemployment rate”–defined as the number of persons unemployed at some time during the year as a proportion of the number of persons who worked or looked for work during the year–was 15.9 percent in 2010, down from 16.4 percent in 2009.
• The number of individuals who looked for a job but did not work at all during 2010 rose by 715,000 over the year to 6.6 million.”
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