January 31, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Federal government biggest job loser in 1990s

The Federal government (excluding the Postal Service) lost the most jobs in the 1990s of any industry.

The 10 industries losing the most jobs over the 1989-99 period (in thousands)
[Chart data—TXT]

The number of civilian federal employees (other than postal workers) fell from 2,155,400 in 1989 to 1,796,100 in 1999—a loss of 359,300 jobs. The Department of Defense lost the most: 333,000 civilian workers.

Other industries with large declines in employment in the 1990s included savings institutions and aircraft and parts manufacturing.

These data are a product of the BLS Current Employment Statistics Program. Find out more in "Job Growth in the 1990s: a retrospect," by Julie Hatch and Angela Clinton, Monthly Labor Review, December 2000.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED