March 04, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Employment growth in the service-providing sector, 2002-12

Virtually all of the projected employment growth in the economy between 2002 and 2012 will occur in the service-providing sector, reflecting its large size relative to the U.S. economy as a whole. Making up 75.3 percent of total employment in 2002, this sector is expected to increase its share of total employment to 78.2 percent in 2012.

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Within the service-providing sector, education and health services and professional and business services represent the industry sectors with the strongest employment growth, both in terms of absolute and percentage changes. Education and health services is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.8 percent and professional and business services is projected to grow 2.7 percent—about double the expected rate for the economy as a whole (1.4 percent).

These data are produced by the Employment Projections program. For more information, see "Industry output and employment projections to 2012," by Jay M. Berman, Monthly Labor Review, February 2004.