Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Employment

The rates at which workers applied for new jobs, started new jobs, and received pay raises were similar to 2022. Reflecting the continued strength of the labor market, these measures remained above levels from 2021. Employees also continued to work from home at higher rates than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

For many families with children, childcare represented an additional factor to consider when making employment decisions, especially for women. Mothers frequently said that they were not working for childcare reasons, and many working parents indicated that they were paying for childcare.

Working from Home

Remote work continued to be common in 2023. In the week before the survey, nearly 4 in 10 adults who worked for someone else ("employees") worked from home at least some of the time—nearly unchanged from 2021 and 2022. In 2023, 16 percent of employees worked entirely from home and 23 percent did so some of the time.²⁰ This reflects a shift away from full-time remote work towards hybrid schedules, as the share working entirely from home was down from 22 percent in 2021, and 19 percent in 2022, but well above the 7 percent who worked mostly from home in 2019, before the pandemic.²¹

Employees who completed more education continued to be more likely to work from home. Twenty-four percent of employees with at least a bachelor's degree worked entirely from home compared with 9 percent of those with a high school degree or less (figure 13).

The survey also asked employees who worked from home about the likelihood of actively looking for another job or leaving their job if their employer required them to work in person each day. To provide context on these results, respondents were also asked if they would actively look for work if their employer froze their pay or cut their pay by different amounts.

Slightly more than 3 in 10 employees (31 percent) who worked from home at least some of the time said they would be very likely to actively look for another job if their employer required them to work in person each workday (figure 14). This share was a much higher 47 percent among employees who worked entirely from home.

Employees viewed a hypothetical in-person work requirement similarly to a hypothetical small decrease in pay (figure 14). Among employees currently working from home at least some of the time, slightly more were very likely to actively look for another job or leave their job if their employer required in-person work (31 percent) than if their employer imposed a 1 percent pay cut (27 percent).

Job Searching and Advancement

Indicators of opportunities for new positions—applying for a new job, starting a new job, and voluntarily leaving a job—all ticked down from 2022 (figure 15). That said, these measures mostly remained above 2021 levels, reflecting continued strength of the labor market. Additionally, the share of adults who received a raise and who asked for a raise were unchanged at 33 percent and 13 percent, respectively.²²

Adults with more education were more likely to have applied for a new job, asked for a raise, or received a raise than those with less education. They also were more likely to have started a new job or voluntarily left a job in the prior year. For example, 43 percent of adults with at least a bachelor's degree received a raise or promotion in the prior year, and 15 percent asked for one. Among adults with a high school degree, 24 percent received a raise or promotion, and 10 percent asked for one in the prior year.

Among individuals who asked for a raise, most received one. Of those who asked for a raise in 2023, 66 percent said that they received a raise, down 4 percentage points from 2022, but matching the share from before the COVID-19 pandemic in fall 2019.

Slightly less than half of those who searched for a job found new work. Among people who applied for a new job, 49 percent reported starting a new job in 2023, down 3 percentage points from 2022, but up 4 percentage points from 2019.

Work Arrangements and Autonomy at Work

Job schedules and autonomy are important dimensions of job quality that can affect job satisfaction and attachment to the labor force. Although many people have regular work schedules, this is not the case for all workers. More than one-fourth (27 percent) of employees had irregular work schedules in 2023. Sixteen percent had a work schedule that varied based on their employer's needs, and 11 percent had a variable schedule at their own request.

To better understand workplace autonomy, employees were asked about how much choice they had to decide what tasks to work on and how to do those tasks. Fifty-six percent of employees said they often or always choose how to complete tasks, and 34 percent said they often or always choose which tasks to work on. Employees with at least a bachelor's degree were more likely to have higher levels of autonomy at work than those with less education (table 5).

Table 5. Share of workers who often or always choose what tasks to work on and how to complete tasks (by education)

Reasons for Not Working

Twenty-five percent of prime-age adults (ages 25 to 54) in the survey were not working for pay in the month before the survey, matching the share who were not working for pay in 2022.²³ Health limitations or disability, family and personal obligations besides childcare, as well an inability to find work were the most commonly cited reasons for not working for pay (table 6).

Table 6. Reasons for not working among prime-age adults (by gender)

Notable differences in prime-age employment rates continued to exist by gender. Twenty-nine percent of prime-age women were not working for pay, compared with 21 percent of prime-age men.

The employment gender gap likely reflects greater family and childcare responsibilities held by women. Nearly 4 in 10 prime-age mothers who were not working for pay said that childcare responsibilities contributed to that choice. Additionally, among prime-age parents living with their children under age 18, slightly more than one-third of women were not working for pay, compared with 16 percent of men. In contrast, the share of prime-age men and women without children at home who were not working for pay was the same at 24 percent.

Care Work

Managing care for loved ones—be they children, a parent, other relative, or friend—often involves tradeoffs between time and cost that can affect people's employment decisions. Reflecting these tradeoffs, while most parents of younger children did not use paid childcare, those who did were more likely to be higher income or working for pay. Similarly, prime-age adults who provided unpaid care for an adult relative or friend needing assistance because of aging, disability, or illness were less likely to be working for pay than those without caretaking responsibilities.

At the time of the survey, nearly 3 in 10 parents living with their children under age 13 ("parents of younger children") used paid childcare. Perhaps reflecting the greater need for childcare among parents with non-school-age children, nearly 4 in 10 parents living with their children under the age of 6 used paid childcare.

Families with single working parents or with two working parents were more likely to use paid childcare. Among parents of younger children, about 4 in 10 who were single and working used paid childcare, as did a similar share of working parents living with a spouse or partner who also worked. This compares with 15 percent who used paid childcare among parents of younger children where one member of the couple did not work (table 7).

Table 7. Hours of paid childcare used per week (by family income, family type, and employment status)

Use of paid childcare also varied by family income, with higher-income parents more likely to use paid childcare, and to use it more intensively. For example, among parents with younger children, those with higher income were about twice as likely as those with lower or middle income to use 20 or more hours of paid childcare per week (table 7).

Childcare costs made up a substantial share of the family budget for parents using paid childcare. The median monthly amount that parents paid for childcare was $800, and $1,100 for those who paid for 20 or more hours of childcare each week. For perspective, parents who used paid childcare typically spent about 50 to 70 percent as much per month on childcare costs as they did on their housing payment, most people's single largest monthly expense (figure 16).

Even among parents who use paid childcare, children require care when they are home. This care frequently falls to mothers. Among adults living with their spouse/partner and their younger children, nearly 6 in 10 mothers said they are usually the primary caretaker when their children are home, compared with 13 percent of fathers. Even when considering the responses of parents who worked, nearly half of mothers said they are usually the primary caregiver, compared with 10 percent of fathers.

Another type of unpaid care work people may provide is for their aging parents, spouse or partner, or adult children who require assistance. Sixteen percent of adults regularly provided unpaid care for an adult relative or friend needing assistance due to aging, disability, or illness. Black and Hispanic adults were more likely than White adults to provide unpaid care for an adult relative or friend who needs assistance (figure 17). Similar shares of men (16 percent) and women (17 percent) provided unpaid care to other adults, contrary to the shares of men and women providing the majority of childcare in their homes.

Sixty-one percent of those providing unpaid care did so for their parent or their spouse's or partner's parent (figure 18). Fourteen percent of adults (22 percent of those living with a spouse or partner) provided unpaid care do so to assist their own spouse or partner.

Individuals who provided care to another adult were also asked how often they did so. Thirty-five percent provided care daily, and just above 6 in 10 provided care at least weekly.

Like childcare, providing regular care for other adults can affect one's ability to do other work for pay. Among prime-age adults (ages 25 to 54), 32 percent who were caring for another adult did not have a paid job, compared with 24 percent of those who did not have these caretaking responsibilities.²⁴ Among those of prime working age with daily caretaking responsibilities for other adults, even fewer had paid employment—47 percent did not work for pay.

Employment Outcomes of Those with a Prior Arrest or Conviction

A prior arrest or conviction can be a major barrier to employment.²⁵ To understand the labor market outcomes of individuals who have previously been arrested along with other economic well-being characteristics, the 2023 survey incorporated new questions asking respondents about their past arrest and conviction records.

Among prime-age adults (ages 25 to 54), Black and Hispanic populations have higher shares of individuals with either an arrest or a conviction compared with other racial and ethnic groups. Specifically, 20 percent of Black prime-age adults and 19 percent of Hispanic prime-age adults had either an arrest or a conviction record, exceeding that seen among either White or Asian prime-age adults (table 8). Prime-age adults with an arrest or a conviction record were also more likely to come from families with less education and have lower incomes themselves.

Table 8. Prior arrests and convictions among prime-age adults (by demographic characteristics)

Employers' hiring decisions can rely on criminal background checks. However, employers' access to applicants' past criminal records depends on various state regulations. Among prime-age adults, the share of individuals working for someone else is higher for those who were never arrested or convicted than for those who have been (table 9). Some adults with a prior arrest or conviction appear to turn to self-employment or other work arrangements, which is higher for these groups.²⁶ Nevertheless, the share of prime-age adults with a prior arrest or conviction who were not working at all was 3 to 5 percentage points above that for other adults.

Table 9. Employment outcomes among prime-age adults (by arrest and conviction record)

Prime-age adults with a conviction were also nearly twice as likely to say that an inability to find work was a contributing factor for not working. Eleven percent of prime-age adults with a conviction indicated that they were not working because they could not find work, compared with 6 percent of those with no arrest record (figure 19).²⁷

 

References

 20. Rates of working from home are higher among those who are self-employed. Among those who were self-employed, 32 percent worked from home all of the time as did 19 percent of those with other work arrangements. Return to text

 21. The question asked in 2019 was different from later years. The 2019 survey asked where people worked in their main jobs most of the time. Return to text

 22. Restricting the sample to just those who are working, the likelihood of asking for or receiving a raise is higher. Among those who were working in the month of the survey, 21 percent asked for a raise and 55 percent received one. Return to text

 23. Despite differences in question wording that can affect the estimates of employment levels, this pattern over time is consistent with that observed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported 19 percent of prime-age adults not working in October 2023, similar to the 20 percent not working in October 2022. See U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "(Seas) Employment-Population Ratio—25–54 yrs.," https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300060. Return to text

 24. Among those working, adults with caretaking responsibilities for other adults were also more likely to work parttime rather than fulltime. Eighteen percent of prime-age workers who also had unpaid caretaking responsibilities for other adults worked part time, compared with 13 percent of prime-age workers without these responsibilities. Return to text

 25. Amanda Agan and Sonja Starr, "The Effect of Criminal Records on Access to Employment," American Economic Review 107, no. 5 (May 2017): 560–64; Christopher Uggen, Mike Vuolo, Sarah Lageson, Ebony Ruhland, and Hilary K. Whitham, "The Edge of Stigma: An Experimental Audit of the Effects of Low-Level Criminal Records on Employment," Criminology 52, no. 4 (2014): 627–54. Return to text

 26. It may also be the case that those with a prior arrest or conviction are also more inclined to be self-employed, independent of their criminal record. Return to text

 27. These differences also hold after controlling for age, educational attainment, race, ethnicity, and state of residence. Return to text