Labor Force Statistics from a Family Perspective.

Abstract

As are families so is society . . . If instructed, and governed, they are springs from which go forth the streams of national greatness and prosperity-of civil order and public happiness .' Families are the basic unit of American society that provide the country with its current labor supply and mold the character of its future workers. But, in contrast to the well ordered, ideal state described above, family life is more often depicted as in flux or crisis . This has been especially true of the years following World War II, during which families changed from an extended to a nuclear structure, moved from a rural to an urban setting, and adjusted from wartime pressures to periods of peacetime prosperity or recession . In 1940, a monthly sample survey was initiated to measure changes in the characteristics of the Nation's labor force.' This article draws on the results of that survey to present a historical perspective on the labor market activities of family members . Subsequent sections review recent developments in survey procedures that permit the tracking of broad secular trends and of business-cycle effects on family employment and income, and suggest future directions for family-oriented economic analyses .

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