Laborfest returns with large crowd at Kenosha's lakefront (2024)

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Labor Day celebrates the labor movement of the late 19th century and pays tribute to the social and economic achievements of workers in America during that time. It became an official holiday in 1894, but the observation likely goes back a little further, to 1882, when about 10,000 workers assembled in New York City for a parade. Word spread, and by 1894 more than half of the states (there were only 46 of them at the time) observed a “workingmen’s holiday” at some point throughout the year.

In 1887, Oregon became the first state to designate Labor Day as an official public holiday.

Congress voted to make Labor Day an official federal holiday as a way of appealing to unions following the deadly Pullman Strike of 1894 in Chicago (shown in above photo). Since most states already celebrated it on the first Monday of September, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill on June 29, 1984, designating that as Labor Day as opposed to May 1, when several countries around the world celebrate International Workers' Day.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

As of May 2017, that's the number of people age 16 and over in the U.S. labor force.

Retail salespersons make up the largest occupation, with 4,528,550 employees. Cashiers come in second at 3,541,010.

Top 10 occupations:

1. Retail salespersons (4,528,550)
2. Cashiers (3,541,010)
3. Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food (3,426,090)
4. Office clerks, general (2,955,550)
5. Registered nurses (2,857,180)
6. Customer service representatives (2,707,040)
7. Laborers and freight, stock and material movers, hand (2,587,900)
8. Waiters and waitresses (2,564,610)
9. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical and executive (2,295,510)
10. General and operations managers (2,188,870)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

That's the number of workers either directly represented by a union or whose jobs were covered by a union contract in 2016. New York has the highest union membership rate (23.6 percent), while South Carolina has the lowest (1.6 percent).

Source:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Those are the 2015 real median earnings for male ($51,212) and female ($40,742) full-time, year-round workers.

The 2015 real median household income was $56,516, which marked a 5.2 percent increase from the 2014 median of $53,718. It was the first time median househould income increased since 2007, the year before the Great Recession.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

That number represents the 2015 median Asian household income, which is the highest household income when broken down by race. The median income of non-Hispanic, white households was $62,950; Hispanic households' median income was $45,148; and it was $36,898 for black households.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

That's the projected percentage growth from 2014 to 2024 in the number of wind turbine service technicians, making it the projected fastest-growing occupation in the United States. There were 4,400 wind turbine service technician jobs in 2014.

Personal care aide occupations are expected to add the greatest overall number of positions during the same period —458,100.

Source:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

For many people, Labor Day also represents a symbolic end to summer and the start of a new school year (although many schools across the country actually begin classes before the holiday).

The above 25,027 represents the number of shoe stores in the U.S. available for back-to-school shopping in 2015. Other stores for back-to-school items include 28,910 family clothing stores; 7,885 department stores; 7,185 children and infants’ clothing stores; 6,475 office supply and stationery stores; and 6,870 book stores.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

That's the average commute time for U.S. workers in 2015.

When broken down by state, workers in New York (33.1 minutes) and Maryland (32.6 minutes) had the longest average commutes.

Commuting methods:

• 76.6 percent of workers age 16 and over drove alone to work in 2015.
• 9.0 percent carpooled
• 0.6 percent biked to work
• 4.6 percent worked at home

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

That's the number of workers in the U.S. employed full time as travel agents in 2015.

There were also 17,915 tour and travel guides employed full time, year-round nationwide in 2015.

Many of the American workers who use the long Labor Day weekend to squeeze in a last-minute summer getaway will likely use the services of these travel industry employees offer.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

That's the amount of full-time, year-round workers ages 19 to 64 who were covered by health insurance during all or part of 2015.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau