I'm sure this information could be found out through the department of
labor statistic search, but I find the site complicated and tiresome. 
 I'd like figures  by decade, starting at the time when statistics
were kept on job numbers (pop. numbers for the U.S. go back before the
1800's, but I'm not certain about employment numbers).    I'd like to
start at 1920 if it's available.

Typically, employment statistics are broken down by federal, private,
etc.   The only detail that is necesarry for me is full-time jobs and
part-time jobs.  Anything more than that would be gravy.

Answer should read something like this:
1920: 20 million full-time jobs, 5 million part time jobs,  U.S.
population 78 million.

and so on.

You don't need to actually figure the ratio out for me.  The base
numbers are what I'm interested in.  I'd also be interested in how you
found the numbers.

Thanks in advance!

Julia

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 03 Sep 2003 17:06 PDT

I can find annual total employment figures back to 1939, but they're
broken out by the typical categories you mentioned -- federal vs
private, etc -- but not by full time vs part time.  Stats on part
timers only seem to go back a few decades, I'm afraid.  I'll keep
looking, but let me know if these data may be of interest.

---

Clarification of Question by jefair-ga on 03 Sep 2003 19:39 PDT

It's alright if you can't break it down to full-time and part-time.
And it's fine to start with 1940.

My only concern with federal vs. private is that it may not give me
the total employment numbers for the U.S. I'm sure there are other
jobs that can't be defined in those categories (like farm employment).
 If I could at least minimally get total employment numbers for each
decade, I'd be happy.

Hello again,

Well...I've got good news (great news, actually) and some less than
good news.

The great news is that I've found the breakouts you want -- full time
and part time - and (seemingly) for total population figures broken
out as farm and non-farm.  The less than sterling news is the data
begins in 1950, rather than 1940.

Here's what I came up with that looked like it would be of use to you
(and I hope the formatting survives the posting process).  Let me
know, of course, if you have any questions, or need anything
additional to what I've provided.

pafalafa-ga

-----------------------------


http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsatabs.htm

Data Sources:
Table A-5. Employed persons by class of worker and part-time status 
Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age



ALL DATA ARE THOUSANDS OF WORKERS  ....

YEAR ...NUMBER FARM WORKERS

1950.... 7160 
1960.... 5458 
1970.... 3463 
1980.... 3364 
1990.... 3223 
2000.... 2464 
2001.... 2299 
2002.... 2311 



NON-FARM WORKERS

1950.... 51758 
1960.... 60318 
1970.... 75215 
1980.... 95938 
1990.... 115570 
2000.... 134427 
2001.... 134635 
2002.... 134174 


TOTAL WORKERS

1950....  58918 
1960....  65778 
1970....  78678 
1980....  99303 
1990.... 118793 
2000.... 136891 
2001.... 136933 
2002.... 136485 


PART-TIMERS, ECONOMIC REASONS AND NON-ECONOMIC REASONS
(that is, those working part time due to economic reasons, or for
other reasons such as students with part time work -- add up the two
to get total part time workers--NOTE that data begins with 1955, as
1950 was no available)


1955.... 2115....   5421
1960.... 2855....   6845
1970.... 2446....   9999
1980.... 4321....  13067
1990.... 5204....  15341
2000.... 3227....  18814
2001.... 3715....  18790
2002.... 4213....  18843

 

EMPLOYMENT-POPULATION RATIO (based on population 16 years and older)

1950.... 56.1 
1960.... 56.1 
1970.... 57.4 
1980.... 59.2 
1990.... 62.8 
2000.... 64.4 
2001.... 63.7 
2002.... 62.7 


POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES(all ages)
from the 2002 Statistical Abstract of the United States


http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/02statab/pop.pdf

1900 (June 1) . . . . . . . . ... . . 76,212,168
1910 (Apr. 15) . . . . . . . .. . . . 92,228,496
1920 (Jan. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 106,021,537.
1930 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 123,202,624
1940 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 132,164,569
1950 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 151,325,798
1960 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 179,323,175
1970 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 203,302,031
1980 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 226,542,199
1990 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 248,718,302
2000 (Apr. 1). . . . . . . . . . . . 281,422,426

Hope this does the trick