Occupational winners and losers: who they were during 1972-80, (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, June 1982

Occupational winners and losers:
who they were during 1972-80

Carol Boyd Leon

Most occupations gained workers in the 1970s. An employment increase of 15.6 million persons during 1972 to 1980 was dispersed among three-fourths of the 235 or so occupational categories in which most persons were employed. However, almost half of this job growth can be attributed to just 20 occupations—including secretaries, cashiers, registered nurses, and cooks. Among occupations declining in size were delivery workers, cleaners and servants in private households, and farmers. (See exhibit 1.)

This article looks at employment changes among the biggest occupational winners and losers of the 1970s. Two sets of criteria were used to choose the winners. An occupation must be one of the top 20 in terms of the number of workers added to the annual average employment level between 1972 and 1980 —these increases ranged from more than 200,000 to nearly 1 million; alternately, the job group must have been one of the 20 which grew by 75 percent or more. The majority of occupations which met these tests were in either professional or clerical fields. Four job groups—computer specialists, computer operators, health technologists and technicians and bank tellers—met both criteria. For all winners, job expansion by industry and by sex is examined.

This excerpt is from an article published in the June 1982 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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