Table 3

US adult smokers (in thousands) in the pre-crisis (2005–2007) and post-crisis (2009–2010) periods, overall and by employment status. BRFSS, 2005–2007, 2009–2010

Factor	Employment status					Total
Factor	Employed	Unemployed	Unpaid	Students	Retired	Total
Pre-crisis (2005–2007)
Population (thousands)*	137 473	11 116	29 821	10 156	36 043	224 609
Smoking prevalence (%)	20.74	34.87	22.50	15.30	10.59	19.8
Number of smokers (thousands)	28 507	3877	6708	1554	3818	44 464
Post-crisis (2009–2010)
Population (thousands)*	133 625	20 117	30 881	11 325	37 948	233 896
Smoking prevalence (%)	16.86	32.59	21.87	13.21	9.61	17.52
Number of smokers (thousands)	22 529	6553	6757	1495	3644	40 978
Difference (thousands)†	−5978	2677	49	−59	−174	−3485
Due to change in Population
Expected (due to demographic change in population; A)	1187	161	274	64	158	1844
Unexpected (due to the economic crisis; B)	−2032	3100	49	118	42	1278
Due to change in smoking prevalence
Expected‡ (due to pre-crisis secular trend; C1)	−3213	246	−108	−288	−137	−3501
Expected§ (due to change in sociodemographic characteristics; C2)	−2275	−92	−85	137	−135	−2450
Unexpected (due to the economic crisis; D)	355	−739	−82	−89	−102	−657
Due to the economic crisis (B+D; thousands)	−1676	2362	−32	29	−60	621

*Average population aged ≥18 years over the period. The distribution of population by employment status was derived by the distribution within the BRFSS sample in the specific period.
†Difference in number of smokers among the two periods.
‡Expected estimates taking into account the employment status-specific smoking prevalence trends observed during the period 2005–2007.
§Estimated under the assumption that the sex-specific, age-specific, race/ethnicity-specific, education-specific and marital status-specific subjects have the same prevalence rates of the corresponding categories in the general adult population observed over the period 2005–2007 (pre-crisis).