December 21, 1998 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Entrants concentrated in sales, clerical, and service occupations

Of the more than 23 million workers who entered a new occupation from February 1995 to February 1996, about 17.5 percent had entered service occupations. Other major occupational groups that accounted for more than 15 percent of the total entrants were administrative support and sales workers. These three occupational groups accounted for almost half of all occupational entry.

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Among the 4.2 million entrants in the service group, almost 45 percent were employed in the following occupations: janitors, private household cleaners and servants, cooks, waiters and waitresses, or child care workers including early childhood teacher assistants.

About one-fifth of the 3.8 million new workers in administrative support including clerical occupations were secretaries or receptionists. Cashiers alone represented almost one third of the 3.7 million entrants in sales occupations.

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. Additional information is available from "Occupational Entrants in 1995-96", Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Winter 1998-99.