PRB Discuss Online: "Americans at Work: What Lies Ahead?"
The aging of baby boomers and the fact that women's labor force participation has already peaked are expected to slow U.S. labor force growth in the near future. Globalization is also changing the size and composition of the U.S. workforce. Foreign-born workers have contributed 40 percent of the labor force growth between 1990 and 2000, and global corporate restructuring is shifting production from high-wage countries to low-wage countries. In this PRB Discuss Online, Marlene A. Lee, senior research associate and editor of the Population Bulletin at PRB, and Mark Mather, associate vice president of Domestic Programs at PRB, answered participants' questions on this topic. Read a transcript of the questions and answers. (June 2008)

2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book: Well-Being of U.S. Children Improves in Some Ways, Slips in Others
National trends in child well-being have improved slightly since 2000, according to the 2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book. The 2008 Data Book also presents a clear path to reducing the number of children and youth in America's justice system. The annual Data Book, published by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation with technical assistance from the Population Reference Bureau, ranks U.S. states according to 10 indicators of child well-being. (June 2008)

U.S. Labor Force Trends

This Population Bulletin examines demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the U.S. civilian labor force and changes since 1950, and relates these trends to demographic and institutional changes and economic restructuring internationally and within the United States. (BUL63.2; June 2008)

State-by-State Costs of Child Poverty in the U.S.
Research has shown that growing up in poverty leads to negative health, social, and economic consequences for children that often continue in adulthood. Compared with other children, children living below the poverty line are less healthy, have lower educational achievement, and are more likely to become involved with the criminal justice system. As adults, they are less likely to attend college or hold a steady job. In 2006, an estimated 13.3 million U.S. children were living in poverty, and at risk for such lifelong problems. (May 2008)

Population Losses Mount in U.S. Rural Areas
Despite rapid population growth in parts of the U.S. South and West, 43 percent of all counties lost population since 2000—nearly twice the number of counties that lost population during the 1990s (1,346 counties vs. 689 counties). The data, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's newly released 2007 population estimates, reveal a wide demographic divide between fast- and slow-growing areas. (March 2008)

Family Planning Worldwide 2008 Data Sheet
The Population Reference Bureau's Family Planning Worldwide 2008 Data Sheet contains the latest estimates of lifetime births per woman and other key family planning indicators for more than 100 countries, including percent of women using both traditional and modern family planning, unmet need, and use of modern contraception by wealth group. Accompanying graphs illustrate trends in contraceptive use, projected increases in contraceptive needs, and the gap between desired vs. actual number of children, and the reasons women stop using the pill within one year of trying it. (March 2008)

PopWire: Preschoolers With Working Moms Rely on Grandparent's Care
There were nearly 11.3 million children younger than 5 whose mothers were employed in 2005. Of those, nearly one-third counted on regular care by a grandparent during their mother's working hours (30 percent), according to tables recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. (March 2008)

Family Planning Policies and the Poor in Peru
Over the past two decades, the government of Peru has instituted a series of laws and policies designed to expand access to family planning services. A recent article in International Family Planning Perspectives notes that in practice, these policies have not always achieved their desired effect. (March 2008)

Driving Up Demand for Health Services in Latin America
Millions of people live in poverty in Latin America, and many young people often face few prospects for a bright future. To combat the cycle of poverty, over the past decade governments throughout Latin America have adopted a new approach—conditional cash transfers (CCTs). This strategy offers poor households cash in return for fulfilling specific requirements related to health, education, and nutrition. (January 2008)

Child Poverty is Highest in Rural Counties in U.S.
While many people think of poverty in the United States as primarily an urban problem, data released by the Census Bureau this week indicate that most of the counties with high child poverty rates are located in rural America. (January 2008)