December 19, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Service-providing sector and job growth to 2014

Reflecting its historical dominance, the service-providing sector is projected to account for all of the growth in nonagricultural wage and salary employment between 2004 and 2014.

Employment by major industry sector, 1994, 2004, and projected 2014
[Chart data—TXT]

Specifically, the service-providing sector’s employment is expected to reach 129 million by 2014, accounting for almost 4 out of every 5 jobs in the U.S. economy.

Within this sector, educational services, health care and social assistance, and professional and business services represent the industry sectors with the fastest projected employment growth. Each of these sectors is expected to grow at double the 1.2-percent projected rate for the economy as a whole, with professional and business services and health care and social assistance adding a dominant 4.6 million and 4.3 million jobs, respectively.

Within the goods-producing sector, construction is expected to be the only sector to exhibit positive employment growth. The projected job gains attributed to the construction sector are expected to be almost completely offset by the expected employment decrease in manufacturing.

These data are from the Employment Projections program. Additional information is available from "Industry output and employment projections to 2014," by Jay M. Berman, Monthly Labor Review, November 2005.

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