About 153.5 million Americans held a job at some time during 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week.

That represented 63.3 percent of the population over the age of 16. The proportion was down slightly from 63.7 percent in 2010.

The bureau said that 23.7 million workers experienced some period of unemployment in 2011, which was 1.5 million fewer than the year before.

The bureau said that 6.2 million individuals said they looked for a job in 2011 but did not work at all in the year.

The data come from Census surveys.

Among all workers, 65.8 percent held what were classified as full-time, year-round jobs. That was an improvement over 64.7 percent in 2010.

The report showed a big difference between the proportion of men and women who worked at some point during the year. The percentage of men who worked was 68.8 percent, compared with 58.1 percent of women.

The full report is available at bls.gov.

| Diane Stafford, stafford@kcstar.com