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November 1999, Vol. 122, No. 11
Occupational employment projections to 2008
Douglas Braddock
Note: projections for 1998-2008 have been superseded by projections for 2000-10
Total employment is projected to increase by 20.3 million jobs over the 1998–2008 period, rising from 140.5 million to 160.8 million, according to the latest projections of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See box on page 4 in the article by Charles Bowman.) The projected 14.4-percent change in employment is less than the 17.1-percent increase attained during the previous 10-year period, 1988-98, when the economy added 20.5 million jobs.1
The economy will continue generating jobs for workers at all levels of education and training, although growth rates are projected to be faster, on average, for occupations requiring at least an associate degree than for occupations requiring less training. However, most job growth will be in occupations requiring less formal education or training, even though many of these occupations are projected to have below-average growth rates. There also will be numerous job openings resulting from the need to replace workers who leave the labor force or move to other occupations.
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Footnotes
1 Occupational projections
presented in this article provide information to those interested in labor
market issues. They also provide the background for analyses of future
employment opportunities described in the forthcoming 2000–01 Occupational
Outlook Handbook, BLS Bulletin 2520. Job outlook information in the 2000–01
Handbook, scheduled for release in early 2000, will use the projections
presented in each of the articles that make up Employment Outlook: 1998–2008.
For a description of the methodology used to develop employment projections, see
BLS Handbook of Methods, Bulletin 2490 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 1997),
pp. 122–29.
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