WHERE WE WORKED
In 1987, 121,602,000 Americans were either working or looking for work. That figure included 76% of the men in this country and 56% of the women. In 1985, 6.1% of the workforce was unemployed -- 7,425,000 Americans actively seeking employment; of these, the group with the largest percentage (nearly 35%) were black teenagers. In the Eighties, the majority of workers were white-collar. In 1985, 55% of those employed were in managerial, professional, sales or technical jobs, while only 28% held blue-collar jobs. 13% were in the service industry and 4% of working Americans were in agriculture. 8% were self-employed. The top five companies employing the most people in 1986 were General Motors (811,000), Sears, Roebuck & Co. (409,000), IBM (405,500), Ford Motor Co. (369,000) and AT&T (337,000). In 1986 there were 2,167,000 Americans on active military duty. The U.S. military also employed a little over 1 million civilians. 10% of all ranks were women. Fewer Americans belonged to labor unions in the 1980s. In 1980 there were nearly 21 million union members; that number had declined to 17 million by 1985. There were two women and no blacks among the 100 senators of the 99th Congress (1985-1987). In the House of Representatives (434 members) there were 22 women and 20 blacks; 251 of the representatives were lawyers. In the mid-Eighties, 88% of Americans said they were satisfied with their jobs. In spite of this, less than 40% expected to remain in their current job for more than five years. Most Americans (72%) didn't think it would be difficult to get another job. This indicated general optimism about the economy and the job market in the mid- and late-Eighties. The most important aspect of a job for the majority of Americans surveyed was a feeling of accomplishment, beating out high pay by a better than 2 to 1 margin. WHAT WE EARNED In 1987, the median family income was $30,853 -- three times what it was in 1970, though if you adjusted for inflation it was only a 7% increase. 23% of Americans made over $50,000, 20% made between $35-50,000, and 17.5% made between $25-35,000. At the other end of the scale, 4.4% made under $5,000, while 7.3% made between $5-10,000. A family making $86,000 found itself in the highest 5% of the population. The median family income for whites in 1987 was $32,274 and for blacks was $18,098. In 1985, 116,985,000 Americans earned wages or salaries, while 47% received some kind of income from the government; for instance, 33 million Americans received Social Security checks. In 1987, the average personal income for men was $22,684. For women it was $11,345. That year, 56% of American women were in the workforce. The highest wages were paid in the West, the lowest in the South and Midwest. In 1985, nearly 60% of Americans were paid hourly, and median hourly wage for men was $7.45. For women it was $5.26. Among salaried workers, the highest paid occupations were airplane pilot, chemical engineer and lawyer, the only three who made median weekly earnings of over $700. Half of one percent of the population earned more than $280,000; over 30% of them were in the banking, real estate, or insurance fields. In 1984, 18 million Americans (20% of the workforce) were employed by some level of government. The federal government employed 2.9 million. The Postal Service employed nearly 750,000. In 1986 there were 2,176,000 teachers in the public schools, earning an average salary of $25,257 a year. Among doctors, general practitioners averaged $79,000 a year, while neurosurgeons brought in $205,000 a year. Fresh out of law school, an attorney could expect to make $26,000 with a law firm. In 1985, 14% of the American people (about 33 million) lived below the poverty line ($10,989 for a family of four.) Two-thirds of them were white. The majority lived in rural areas. But most of the poor did not remain poor; less than 3% were poor for 8 or more years. WHAT WE BOUGHT In 1987, we bought 10.2 million new automobiles, nearly 30% of them imports. The average new car price the previous year was $12,585, and the most popular cars were the Ford Escort, the Ford Taurus, and the Honda Accord. Moreso than before, Americans were buying vans and trucks, with a record 4.6 million of them sold in 1987. In 1986, 16.5 million used cars were purchased at the average price of $5,833. In 1986, over 158 million Americans had a driver's license. That same year, 22% of them were involved in a motor vehicle accident, and only about 30% consistently wore seatbelts. In 1985, 8,449,000 speeding tickets were issued. Americans owned 111 million bicycles in 1986, and nearly 14 million pleasure boats and 5.5 million motorcycles the previous year. In 1985, 94% of American households had a television set, and 50% had a videocassette recorder, double the number from only a year earlier. Following the breakup of AT&T, more and more Americans owned their telephones -- 55% in 1985. Another hot item in the Eighties was the telephone answering machine; while only 5% of households had one of those in 1985, nearly 20% did two years later. In 1985, 12% of American households owned a computer. In 1987 we bought 300,000 car phones, yet another hot new item in the 1980s. In 1987, 70% of Americans owned their own home. The average sale price for a new house in 1985 was $84,300. That year, over 3 million housing units were sold. Renters paid an average of $332 a month in 1987 for previously occupied apartments, and $515 a month for new ones There were approximately 120 million privately owned firearms in the United States in 1986, with about half of the households having at least one. Nearly 60% of households had at least one pet in 1985, including 46 million dogs, with one out of three of those dogs being mixed breed. The most popular pure breeds were the German shepherd and golden retriever. We also owned 45 million cats (26% of households), 27 million birds (15% of households) and 250 million fish in 12% of households. |
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