Essential workers by gender, education, and race/ethnicity, 2019
| All essential workers | Food and agriculture | Emergency services | Transportation, warehouse, and delivery | Industrial, commercial, residential facilities and services | Health care | Government and community-based services | Communications and IT | Financial sector | Energy sector | Water and wastewater management | Chemical sector | Critical manufacturing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All workers (ages 16+) | 55,217,845 | 11,398,233 | 1,849,630 | 3,972,089 | 6,806,407 | 16,679,875 | 4,590,070 | 3,189,140 | 3,070,404 | 1,327,760 | 107,846 | 271,160 | 1,955,233 |
| Female | 49% | 46% | 19% | 24% | 14% | 76% | 73% | 55% | 53% | 4% | 9% | 18% | 12% |
| Male | 51% | 54% | 81% | 76% | 86% | 24% | 27% | 45% | 47% | 96% | 91% | 82% | 88% |
| Less than high school | 10% | 20% | 1% | 9% | 25% | 3% | 4% | 6% | NA | 4% | 2% | 2% | 12% |
| High school | 29% | 38% | 18% | 46% | 45% | 18% | 16% | 30% | 12% | 33% | 36% | 22% | 51% |
| Some college | 30% | 28% | 43% | 33% | 22% | 32% | 25% | 38% | 22% | 37% | 44% | 29% | 32% |
| College degree | 20% | 11% | 31% | 11% | 7% | 27% | 24% | 22% | 46% | 18% | 16% | 36% | 5% |
| Advanced degree | 11% | 3% | 7% | 2% | 1% | 19% | 31% | 5% | 20% | 8% | NA | 11% | 0% |
| White | 55% | 50% | 68% | 52% | 47% | 60% | 61% | 57% | 70% | NA | 72% | 72% | 63% |
| Black | 15% | 13% | 16% | 22% | 9% | 18% | 16% | 17% | 9% | 7% | 10% | 11% | 10% |
| Hispanic | 21% | 28% | 12% | 19% | 40% | 13% | 16% | 19% | 11% | 18% | 12% | 9% | 20% |
| AAPI | 6% | 7% | 2% | 6% | 2% | 8% | 6% | 6% | 9% | 6% | NA | 8% | 5% |
| Other | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | NA | NA | 2% |
Note: Code for the definition of essential services used here is available upon request.
Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata, EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.2 (2020), https://microdata.epi.org