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Neal H. Rosenthal
E mployment growth between 1983 and 1993 was greater for occupations at the top and bottom of the earnings distribution than for those in the middle. This article presents additional data on occupational job openings resulting from the need to replace workers who permanently leave the labor force and the net movement of workers among occupations. The number of job openings for wage and salary workers resulting from both employment growth and replacement of workers leaving the labor force and changing occupations was greater in low-paying occupations.1
These conclusions are derived from a recently-developed employment series based on industry-occupational employment matrices prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics since the early 1980's.
Changes in the demand for goods and services and in how work is performed have raised many concerns about the nature of job growth. Increasing use of computer technology, restructuring of businesses, and a growing global economy are among the factors economists cite as contributing changes in the employment structure of the U.S. economy since the early 1980's. However, measuring the impact of these factors on the industrial and occupational composition of employment and on the quality of jobs in terms of their educational requirements and earnings is difficult.
This excerpt is from an article published in the June 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.
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Footnotes
1 These conclusions are derived from a recently developed
employment series based on industry-occupational employment
prepared by BLS since the early 1980's.
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