Employment Trends - The Sectors - A Century Of Change, The Sectors - The Last 20 Years, Services -where More And More People Work

This chapter highlights trends in employment. We try to answer the question, Where do people work? And, under what institutional arrangements? The first question is a focus on "sectors" of the economy, rather than physical location of jobs. The second examines such things as the subdivisions of the sectors — private and public, profit-making and not-for-profit, unionized and non-union.

The general argument, presented in eight panels, might be framed like this:

•There has been a great deal of change in the way the U.S. economy's sectors are aligned. We were once farmers, later producers of physical goods. Now we are becoming predominantly a services society.

The first two panels present the sectoral changes, first over the span of a century, then over the last 20 years.

•The Services Producing sector has become by far the most dominant employer of people.

We explore some of the reasons why in the third panel. There we focus closely on the fastest growing element of the Services Producing sector, namely "services" as more narrowly defined. A good deal more on this subject is provided in Chapter 5, Productivity and Training, where some of the underlying reasons for this shift are further analyzed.

•Government is said to be growing. Is this borne out by the facts? The Educational Establishment is largely a governmental function in the United States and much in the news for its splendid achievements or dismal failures — all depending on the speakers and the issues. What do the numbers show?

The fourth panel looks at general trends in government employment. We note that federal employment has declined, state government employment grown only slightly, and that most of the growth has been at the local level. This leads to a look at where the growth has been. The answer is, in Education. The fifth panel takes a closer look at this subject. In the sixth panel, we focus more closely on the Federal Government as an employer, and note that defense employment is down, U.S. Postal Service employment is up — the Federal Government's two largest sectors.

•Unions are said to be "in trouble" or "making a comeback." What are the facts here? What are trends in unionized labor in the age of services and of the Internet?

The last two panels in this chapter present interesting information on trends over the last 40 years, with a look back at the beginnings of organized labor. The benefits of working under union contracts are highlighted in the final panel. Changes underlying shifts in union participation are touched upon.