The total number of jobs in the United States in 2002 was 144 million. This included 11.4 million self-employed workers, 140,000 unpaid workers in family businesses, and 132.3 million wage and salary workers-including primary and secondary job holders. The total number of jobs is projected to increase to 165.3 million by 2012, and wage and salary jobs are projected to account for more than 153.8 million of them.
As shown in table 3, although wage and salary jobs are the vast majority of all jobs, they are not evenly divided among the various industries. The education and health services industry supersector is the largest source of employment, with about 26 million workers in 2002. The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector is next largest, followed by professional and business services, employing 25.5 million and 16 million workers, respectively. Among the industries, wage and salary employment ranged from only 122,500 in oil and gas extraction to 12.5 million in educational services. Three industries-educational services, health services, and food services and drinking places-together accounted for 33.5 million jobs, or one quarter of the Nation's wage and salary employment.
Table 3. Wage and salary employment in selected industries
2002 and projected change, 2002-2012
(Employment in thousands)
| Industry | 2002 | 2012 | 2002-12 | |||
| Employment | Percent Distribution | Employment | Percent Distribution | Percent Change | Employment Change | |
| All industries | 132,279 | 100.0 | 153,883 | 100.0 | 16.3 | 21,603 |
| Goods-producing industries | 23,766 | 18.0 | 24,538 | 15.9 | 3.2 | 772 |
| Natural resources and mining | 1,728 | 1.3 | 1,644 | 1.1 | -4.9 | -84 |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting | 1,216 | 0.9 | 1,192 | 0.8 | -1.9 | -24 |
| Oil and gas extraction | 122 | 0.1 | 88 | 0.1 | -27.8 | -34 |
| Mining | 212 | 0.2 | 180 | 0.1 | -15.0 | -32 |
| Construction | 6,732 | 5.1 | 7,745 | 5.0 | 15.1 | 1,014 |
| Manufacturing | 15,307 | 11.6 | 15,149 | 9.8 | -1.0 | -157 |
| Aerospace product and parts manufacturing | 468 | 0.4 | 386 | 0.3 | -17.6 | -83 |
| Apparel manufacturing | 358 | 0.3 | 112 | 0.1 | -68.6 | -245 |
| Chemical manufacturing, except drugs | 636 | 0.5 | 530 | 0.3 | -16.7 | -106 |
| Computer and electronic product manufacturing | 1,521 | 1.1 | 1,333 | 0.9 | -12.4 | -189 |
| Food manufacturing | 1,525 | 1.2 | 1,597 | 1.0 | 4.7 | 72 |
| Motor vehicle and parts manufacturing | 1,152 | 0.9 | 1,181 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 29 |
| Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing | 293 | 0.2 | 361 | 0.2 | 23.2 | 68 |
| Printing | 710 | 0.5 | 734 | 0.5 | 3.3 | 24 |
| Steel manufacturing | 170 | 0.1 | 136 | 0.1 | -20.0 | -34 |
| Textile mills and products | 489 | 0.4 | 338 | 0.2 | -31.0 | -152 |
| Service-providing industries | 108,513 | 82.0 | 129,344 | 84.1 | 19.2 | 20,831 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 25,493 | 19.3 | 29,093 | 18.9 | 14.1 | 3,600 |
| Automobile dealers | 1,250 | 0.9 | 1,408 | 0.9 | 12.6 | 158 |
| Clothing, accessory, and general merchandise stores | 4,128 | 3.1 | 4,473 | 2.9 | 8.3 | 344 |
| Grocery stores | 2,478 | 1.9 | 2,611 | 1.7 | 5.4 | 133 |
| Wholesale trade | 5,641 | 4.3 | 6,279 | 4.1 | 11.3 | 638 |
| Air transportation | 559 | 0.4 | 626 | 0.4 | 12.0 | 67 |
| Truck transportation and warehousing | 1,853 | 1.4 | 2,274 | 1.5 | 22.7 | 422 |
| Utilities | 600 | 0.5 | 565 | 0.4 | -5.7 | -34 |
| Information | 3,420 | 2.6 | 4,052 | 2.6 | 18.5 | 632 |
| Broadcasting | 334 | 0.3 | 362 | 0.2 | 8.5 | 28 |
| Motion picture and video industries | 360 | 0.3 | 472 | 0.3 | 31.1 | 112 |
| Publishing, except software | 714 | 0.5 | 703 | 0.5 | -1.5 | -11 |
| Software publishers | 256 | 0.2 | 430 | 0.3 | 67.9 | 174 |
| Telecommunications | 1,201 | 0.9 | 1,281 | 0.8 | 6.7 | 80 |
| Financial activities | 5,815 | 4.4 | 6,405 | 4.2 | 10.1 | 590 |
| Banking | 1,761 | 1.3 | 1,873 | 1.2 | 6.4 | 112 |
| Insurance | 2,223 | 1.7 | 2,391 | 1.6 | 7.5 | 168 |
| Securities, commodities, and other investments | 801 | 0.6 | 925 | 0.6 | 15.5 | 124 |
| Professional and business services | 16,010 | 12.1 | 20,876 | 13.6 | 30.4 | 4,866 |
| Advertising and public relations services | 442 | 0.3 | 525 | 0.3 | 18.9 | 84 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 1,163 | 0.9 | 1,798 | 1.2 | 54.6 | 635 |
| Employment services | 3,249 | 2.5 | 5,012 | 3.3 | 54.3 | 1,764 |
| Management, scientific, and technical consulting services | 732 | 0.6 | 1,137 | 0.7 | 55.4 | 406 |
| Education and health services | 26,060 | 19.7 | 32,935 | 21.4 | 26.4 | 6,875 |
| Child day care services | 734 | 0.6 | 1,050 | 0.7 | 43.1 | 316 |
| Educational services | 12,527 | 9.5 | 15,016 | 9.8 | 19.9 | 2,489 |
| Health services | 12,524 | 9.5 | 16,025 | 10.4 | 28.0 | 3,501 |
| Social assistance, except child day care | 1,269 | 1.0 | 1,867 | 1.2 | 47.1 | 597 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 11,969 | 9.0 | 14,104 | 9.2 | 17.8 | 2,135 |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | 1,778 | 1.3 | 2,275 | 1.5 | 28.0 | 497 |
| Food services and drinking places | 8,412 | 6.4 | 9,749 | 6.3 | 15.9 | 1,337 |
| Hotels and other accommodations | 1,780 | 1.3 | 2,080 | 1.4 | 16.9 | 301 |
| Public administration | 9,774 | 7.4 | 10,582 | 6.9 | 8.3 | 808 |
| Federal Government, excluding the postal service | 1,922 | 1.5 | 1,972 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 50 |
| State and local government, except education and health | 7,851 | 5.9 | 8,610 | 5.6 | 9.7 | 759 |
Note: May not add to totals due to omission of industries not covered.
Although workers of all ages are employed in each industry, certain industries tend to possess workers of distinct age groups. For the previously mentioned reasons, retail trade employs a relatively high proportion of younger workers to fill part-time and temporary positions. The manufacturing sector, on the other hand, has a relatively high median age because many jobs in the sector require a number of years to learn and perfect specialized skills that do not easily transfer to other firms. Also, manufacturing employment has been declining, providing fewer opportunities for younger workers to get jobs. As a result, one-forth of the workers in retail trade were 24 years of age or younger in 2002, compared with only 8.4 percent of workers in manufacturing. Table 4 contrasts the age distribution of workers in all industries with the distributions in five very different industries.
Table 4. Percent distribution of wage and salary workers
by age group, selected industries, 2002
| Industry | Age group | |||
| 16 to 24 | 25 to 44 | 45 to 64 | 65 and older | |
| All industries | 15 | 48 | 34 | 3 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 7 | 68 | 25 | 1 |
| Educational services | 10 | 43 | 44 | 3 |
| Food services and drinking places | 44 | 39 | 15 | 2 |
| Telecommunications | 10 | 58 | 32 | 0 |
| Utilities | 6 | 47 | 45 | 2 |
Employment in some industries is concentrated in one region of the country. Such industries often are located near a source of raw or unfinished materials upon which the industry relies. For example, oil and gas extraction jobs are concentrated in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma; many textile mills and products manufacturing jobs are found in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; and a significant proportion of motor vehicle manufacturing jobs are located in Michigan and Ohio. On the other hand, some industries-such as grocery stores and educational services-have jobs distributed throughout the Nation, reflecting the general population density.
Information courtesy of the U.S. Department of Labor.
