Labor Day 2010 Facts
The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City.
The day of the holiday was changed to the first Monday in September in 1884. Congress passed an act officially making the first Monday in September a legal holiday on June 28, 1894.
For many decades, Labor Day was seen as a day for workers to voice their complaints and discuss better working conditions and pay.
In 2009, 155.1 million people were in the nation’s labor force.
Approximately 7.2 million people identify their occupation as a teacher. Comparatively, 1.7 million are chief executives, 751,000 are farmers and ranchers and 773,000 are hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists.
There are 15.7 million labor union members in the United States, which is about 12 percent of wage and salary workers. Alaska, Hawaii and New York have some of the highest rates of the states. North Carolina has one of the lowest.
In New York, the average commute time is 31.5 minutes. Not surprisingly, this is the most time-consuming commute in the nation. The national average is 25.3 minutes.
About 3.4 million workers have an at least 90-minute commute to work each day.
The origin of the word labor is from the Anglo-French word labur and the Latin word labor. It was first used in the 14th century.
Roughly 7.7 million people have two jobs. Of those people, 288,000 work two full-time jobs.
There are about 5.7 million people who report they work from home.
About 28 percent of workers 16 or older work more than 40 hours a week. Meanwhile, 8 percent of workers work more than 60 hours a week.