• There are 135.2 million people in the American workforce. 62.9 million, or 46%, are women.

• Americans work an average of 1,966 hours annually. That’s nearly two weeks more per year than Japan – and more than any other industrialized country.

• Working couples lost an average of 22 hours a week of family and personal time between 1969 and 1999.

• 50.3 million working parents – roughly 37% of the total workforce – have children under the age of 18.

• The American family is shrinking. Fewer people marry: In 1970, 68% of adults were married and 15% had never married. By the late 1990s, only 56% of adults were married and 23% had never married. And families have fewer children: In 1960, the average number of children per family was 2.33; today, it’s 1.87.

• Only about one out of four families fits the traditional model of husband as wage-earner and wife as homemaker. Today, 64% of married couples both work, compared to just 36% twenty-five years ago.

• The National Sleep Foundation reports that “a majority of American adults (63%) do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep needed for good health, safety and optimum performance. In fact, nearly one-third (31%) report sleeping less than seven hours each week night.”

• The total percentage of women employed has doubled from about 30% in 1950, to 60%in the year 2000.

• The number of single fathers increased 25% in the late 1990’s -- from 1.7 million in 1995 to 2.1 million in 1998.

• More and more young children are being left alone. According to the U.S. census, nearly 1 out of five children between the ages of 5 and 14 regularly cared for themselves.

• The typical, middle income married couple family works 3,885 hours – that’s an increase of 247 hours, or nearly six weeks, more than their counterparts ten years ago.

• According to a 1997 study of families with working mothers, 41% of children under 5 years of age spend 35 or more hours a week in non-parental care.

• Women continue to earn less than men – 76% of what men earn. In 1998, median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary were $456 for women and $598 for men.

• Employed fathers spend an average of 2.3 hours per day caring for and doing things with their children and employed mothers spend 3.2 hours per day with their children. For fathers, this is an increase of 30 minutes per day more than it was 20 years ago.

• For married couple families with children under 6 where both parents work, the total number of combined hours worked rose 16 hours a week between 1969 and 1998.

• 45% of employees are able to choose – within some range of hours – when they begin and end their workdays, but only 25% can change their daily schedules as needed.

• 25% of employees have provided elder care during the preceding year. According to a 1998 national public poll, more than half of Americans (54%) say it is likely they will be responsible for the care of an elderly parent or relative in the next 10 years.

• The over-65 population will double in the next 30 years – jumping from 35 million now to 70 million by the year 2030.