Most SNAP participants who can work do so. Over half of working-age, non-disabled people who participated in SNAP in a typical month in 2015 were working in that month, based on U.S. Census Bureau data. Further, 74 percent worked in the 12 months before or after that month.
"While one-third of participants are children,"
P.S. there is 80 billion saved.
Add that to 50 billion in foreign aid and we made it to 130 billion.
$230 billion shortfall. Social Security this year. This will be growing.
There's no good reason to dredge up old data, from well over a decade ago, when newer data is available.
I asked:
Percentage of US adults who receive SNAP benefits, who work full time?
"Yes. The latest federal analysis I found is from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), using 2024 data.
About 20 million adults ages 19–64 lived in households receiving SNAP.
About 10.6 million of them worked at some point during 2024 — roughly 53%.
Of those working SNAP adults, about two-thirds worked full-time hours, defined as 35+ hours per week.
So, depending on exactly what you mean by “percentage of SNAP adults who work full time”:
Among working SNAP adults
? 67% work full-time hours.
Among all SNAP adults ages 19–64
? 35% are working full-time hours (roughly 10.6 million × two-thirds out of 20 million).
That's an important distinction. It is not correct to say that two-thirds of all SNAP adults work full time—two-thirds refers to the subset who are working.
There is also a distinction between working 35+ hours per week and working full-time for most/all of the year. GAO found that the latter percentage is considerably lower."
If you're asking because you want to know how many SNAP recipients are employed full-time for the entire year, I can give you that number too."
I replied:
Yes
"Yes. The “full-time for the entire year” figure is quite a bit lower than the weekly full-time figure.
For SNAP recipients who earned wages in 2018, GAO found:
71.9% worked at least 35 hours per week.
51.2% worked 50–52 weeks of the year.
The remaining 20.7% worked fewer than 50 weeks but at least 35 hours in the weeks they worked.
So the best historical federal estimate is about 51% of working-age SNAP wage earners worked full-time hours for essentially the entire year.
The newer GAO report using 2024 data confirms that about two-thirds of working SNAP adults worked 35+ hours per week, but it specifically says they were less likely than other workers to work full-time hours for 50+ weeks.
One important distinction: these percentages are among SNAP adults who earned wages, not all SNAP recipients. Children, elderly adults, disabled adults, and adults who didn't work are included in the overall SNAP population.
If you want, I can also calculate what percentage of ALL adult SNAP recipients—not just wage earners—are working full-time year-round."
I replied:
Yes
"Yes. If we use all SNAP adults ages 19–64 as the denominator, rather than only those who worked, the picture is:
About 20 million adults ages 19–64 lived in households receiving SNAP in 2024.
About 10.6 million of them worked at some point during the year.
Roughly two-thirds of the working group worked 35+ hours per week.
For the “full-time, essentially all year” measure, the most precise published national figure remains the earlier GAO/Census analysis: 51.2% of SNAP wage earners worked at least 35 hours per week for 50–52 weeks.
Applying that proportion to the newer 2024 population gives an approximate calculation:
10.6 million × 51.2% ? 5.43 million
Then:
5.43 million ÷ 20 million ? 27%
So approximately 27% of all SNAP adults ages 19–64 work full-time for essentially the entire year.
That's a useful distinction:
SNAP adults 19–64 Approx. number
Total 20 million
Worked at some point 10.6 million
Worked 35+ hrs/week ~7 million
Worked 35+ hrs/week for 50–52 weeks ~5.4 million
Percentage of all SNAP adults ~27%
Important caveat: The 27% is an estimate, not a directly published 2024 statistic. GAO's new 2024 report says the full-year percentage is lower than for non-SNAP workers but doesn't give the exact figure in its summary. I'm applying the 51.2% from the comparable earlier Census analysis to the 2024 working population.
If you'd like, I can also
break the other 73% down into children, elderly, disabled, unemployed adults, and adults working part-time/intermittently."
To sum it all up, in 2024, a measly 27% of adults receiving SNAP benefits worked full time for just 35 weeks or more. Kudos to them for working and shame on any of the others who could.
Keith