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

View the underlying data on epi.org.