5 Top House Districts for Labor Market Participation Rates

The Census Bureau pumps vast rivers of information into the public domain. You can use the bureau's American FactFinder tool to slice and dice the information in many different ways. This summer, we're publishing a series of slideshow articles based on key bits of demographic data from the 2017 American Community Survey results, broken out by U.S. House of Representatives district. If you try your hand at citizen lobbying, you may find that one powerful force shaping House members' views is the level of labor market participation in a member's district. Members who represent districts where most residents have jobs may care a lot more about issues such as 401(k) plan account annuitization safe harbors, and the Affordable Care Act "Cadillac plan" tax, on high-value health benefits plan, than members from districts where jobs are scarce, or where many adult residents have already retired. The Census Bureau has many different ways of measuring the strength of a district's job market. Here's a look at one basic job market strength indicator: the share of the population over age 16 that's in the workforce. The labor market participation rate ranged from a low of 41.2%, in a district in Arizona, up to more than 75%, in one district. For the five districts with the highest percentage of adults in the workforce, see the data cards in the slideshow above. — Read 10 States Where Workers Went to Hell, on ThinkAdvisor. — Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.