Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 10. Broadband in homes with Internet access by household composition, 2007
Metro
Nonmetro
Total
Not a parent
85.7
71.4**
83.9
No children under 18 years of age
82.3
66.9**
79.7
Only children less than 6
90.5
78.4**
89.1
At least one child 6-13 and none older than 13
87.3
71.8**
85.2
At least one child older than 13
85.4
71.8**
83.3
Total
85.2
70.3**
83.1
Source: authors using Bureau of the Census CPS data.
Note: Difference between metro/nonmetro (*--significant at 0.05, ** -- significant at 0.01).
have in-home Internet access than any other child/
non-child-household type (Table 9).
Rural households, however, have uniformly
less access than urban households across all child/
non-child-household types. In as much as distance
education becomes beneficial to future household
economic well-being, continuation of this rural-
urban dichotomy would put rural households at
a disadvantage vis-à-vis urban households.
Once a household has in-home Internet access
the step toward broadband is not readily affected
by child/non-child-household type (Table 10).
The rural-urban dichotomy, however, remains and
further differentiates rural and urban households.
In as much as broadband becomes necessary or
beneficial in the distance education system, rural
households would be at a disadvantage vis-à-vis
urban households.
In the current (slow growth) national eco-
nomic environment a number of Internet activities
may become more critical for countless households
including: (1) job searches and (2) home busi-
nesses. The 2007 CPS data gives us some infor-
mation on both. Unemployed adults, while show-
ing some drop-off in Internet use as compared to
employed persons, still had high on-line Internet
access rates when considering getting on-line
anywhere (Table 11). The big drop-off in on-line
activity was for people who were not in the labor
force due to retirement or disability. Unemployed
individuals looking for work were more likely to
have had access than other people not employed.
Rural people in the labor force had a lower access
rate than urban people.
The picture starts to change for home Internet
access of all on-line individuals (Table 12). Home
Table 11. Online activity using any access technology by labor force status, 2007
Metro
Nonmetro Percent
Total
Employed-At work
83.7
78.6**
82.9
Employed-Absent
85.9
79.4**
84.8
Unemployed-On layoff
72.8
62.3**
70.6
Unemployed-Looking
77.7
72.8*
76.9
Retired-Not in labor force
52.6
43.7**
50.9
Disabled-Not in labor force
47.1
43.2*
46.1
Total
77.2
70.6**
76.1
Source: authors using Bureau of the Census CPS data.
Note: Difference between metro/nonmetro (*--significant at 0.05, ** -- significant at 0.01).
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