Job growth and salary: by the numbers

November 23, 2019

Photo credit: Dolapo Falola

Which sectors are growing?

To answer this, we extracted employment data from the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics and analyzed the changes in employment over the last six years.



We find that between 2012 and 2018, a total of 15.4 million new jobs were created and 914,890 jobs were lost. Half of all jobs created in this time period were in the following six sectors: food services and drink places; professional, scientific, and technical services; social assistance; administrative and support services; ambulatory health services; and specialty trade contractors.



The sector with the single largest job growth was food services and drinking places (accounting for 13% of jobs created), about half of which were fast food and counter workers, waitresses, and waiters. Coming in second was the professional, scientific and technical services sector (almost 9% of new jobs), where job growth was driven by software developers, programmers, and computer and information analysts (173,510 new jobs).



Other important sectors were social assistance (including 866,380 new jobs for personal care aides) and administrative and support services (driven by the 395,720 new jobs for hand laborers, material movers, and customer services representatives), together accounting for about 16% of all new jobs.



Healthcare also experienced growth, with 246,120 new nursing and health aid jobs and 130,920 jobs in healthcare support jobs.



Finally, more than one million jobs were created in the specialty trade contractors sector, particularly for electricians, construction laborers, pipelayers and plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC mechanics and installers. Which sectors are shrinking? Several sectors lost jobs in this period. Between 2012 and 2018, more than one-third of all jobs lost were in just one sector: the wholesale electronics sector (these lost jobs were primarily sales representatives). An additional 71,100 jobs in the funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles sector were lost, mostly among secretaries, administrative assistants, accountants, auditors, and office clerks, perhaps due to a shift toward web-based and automated financial management.



Some sectors with job losses seem to be driven by outsourcing, including 105,720 jobs lost in the tellecommunications sector (mostly customer service jobs), 56,250 jobs lost in computer and electronics manufacturing, and 36,370 jobs lost in apparel manufacturing. Others may be driven by changes in energy and natural materials production, with 131,240 jobs lost in the oil and gas, mining, and mining support sectors.

Big changes by sector

The largest sectors are typically where most job growth happens. To see where sectors are experiencing the most dramatic changes, we evaluated the proportional growth in the number of jobs (instead of just total number of jobs).



Using this method, we find that the construction sector has grown the most, with nearly 4.2% job growth from 2012-2018. The arts entertainment, and recreation sector and the the transportation and warehousing sector both grew by more than 3%.

Job growth by sector, United States (2012-2018)