July 13, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Displacement rates by industry

In the 1999-2000 period, workers in goods-producing industries—construction, manufacturing, and mining—continued to be affected more by displacement than those in most service-producing industries.

[Chart data—TXT]

Among goods-producing industries, construction posted the lowest displacement rate (3.3 percent). The rate for construction was little changed compared to the 1997-98 period.

In manufacturing, the displacement rate rose to 4.7 percent, from 4.2 percent in 1997-98. The increased likelihood of displacement in 1999-2000 was felt in both major component industries—durable and nondurable manufacturing.

In the service-producing industries, displacement rates rose to 3.7 percent in finance, insurance, and real estate and to 2.5 percent in services; in 1997-98, the rates for those industries were 3.3 and 2.2 percent, respectively. The services industry, however, continued to have the lowest displacement rate among nonagricultural industries in the private sector.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Displaced workers are defined as persons 20 years of age and older who lost or left jobs because their plant or company closed or moved, there was insufficient work for them to do, or their position or shift was abolished. Read more about displaced workers in "Worker Displacement, 1999-2000," by Ryan Helwig, in the June 2004 Monthly Labor Review.  

 

Related TED article: 

• Displacement rates and demographics, 1999-2000