Although average annual earnings of blacks are considerably lower than those of whites, the earnings distributions have large overlapping areas. (Editor)

A strong increase in employment highlighted the nation's job situation in 1978. A record 59 percent of the working-age population were jobholders by the end of fourth quarter and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent. Women age 16 and over accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the civilian labor force. (BM)

From 1978-79 incidence of long hours among full-time wage and salary workers dropped for the first time since the 1974-75 recession. Of those who worked long hours, about 43% received premium pay (time and one-half the regular wage for hours worked in excess of forty per week). Employers used overtime hours to cope with disequilibrium phenomena…