January 09, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumer spending and job growth

Consumer decisions about what to buy, how much to buy, and when to buy from the myriad of goods and services that are available today help to determine how much of which goods and services will eventually be produced. In 2000, employment generated by consumer spending was 83.2 million, or 62 percent of total employment.

[Chart data—TXT]

Consumer spending is projected to add 11.3 million net new jobs by 2010, so that total employment resulting from consumer spending will reach 94.5 million, or 61 percent of all employment that year. The annual growth rate of employment generated by consumer spending between 2000 and 2010 is projected to be 1.3 percent. This is below the rates of the three previous five-year periods.

Projections data are from the BLS Employment Projections program.  For more information, see "Consumer spending: an engine for U.S. job growth," by Mitra Toossi, Monthly Labor Review, November 2002.