January 10, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumer-related jobs most important to farming and nondurables among goods producers

Consumer expenditures on the products of the goods-producing sector are projected to increase by 5.2 percent over the 2000-2010 period. The jobs associated with those expenditures would be most important to the agriculture, forestry, and fishing and nondurable goods manufacturing industries.

[Chart data—TXT]

Consumer-related employment is projected to account for 69.3 percent of total employment in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries and 63.1 percent of employment in nondurables factories in 2010.

In other goods-producing industries, the share of 2010 employment attributable to consumers is projected to range from 10.8 percent in construction to 24.5 percent in durables manufacturing to 26.1 percent in mining.

This analysis is the product of the Employment Projections program. For more information, see "Consumer spending: an engine for U.S. job growth," by Mitra Toossi, Monthly Labor Review, November 2002.  

Related TED article: 

• Consumer spending and job growth