Couples, ethnic minorities more deeply affected by unemployment

Posted by Elena del Valle on January 20, 2010

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Between 2007 and 2009 unemployment for couples with children under 18 years of age doubled, according to the United States Census Bureau. Two parent families were more affected than single parent families and Hispanic and black families were also more affected than non Hispanic white families, according to the March 2009 Current Population Survey. While in 2007 in 67 percent of households with a married couple both parents worked by 2009 only 59 percent of those households had both parents working.

In homes with married couples and children 6 percent of husbands and 4 percent of wives were unemployed last year compared to 3 percent of husbands and 2 percent of wives two years earlier. Children living with two parents varied greatly by ethnicity with Asian children being the most likely to live in a dual parent home, 85 percent. Among non Hispanic whites 78 percent of children lived with both parents while 69 percent of Hispanics and 38 percent of blacks shared that type of home.

At the same time, the number of interracial and mixed ethnicity marriages increased. Last year, in 7.6 percent of couples the husband and wife were of different races or a Hispanic was married to a non Hispanic. In 2003, the percent of such marriages was 6.4.