November 22, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Employment in electric services industry drops in 1990s
Employment in the
electric services industry fell from a peak of 454,400 in 1990 to 368,300
in 1997. During this period, the industry saw both increases in output
and, beginning in 1992, significant deregulation.
![Employment in the electric services industry, selected years, 1976-97](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925030202im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1999/Nov/wk4/art01.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
Employment declines in electric services occurred each year in the
1991-97 period, despite steady growth in employment for the economy as a whole.
The U.S. Congress passed legislation in both 1992 and 1996 that
deregulated certain aspects of the industry.
At the same time that employment in the electric services industry was
falling, the Nation’s output of electricity was rising. Total output
grew 14 percent from 1991 to 1996, while employment in electric services
fell 14 percent over the same period.
These employment data are a product of the BLS Covered
Employment and Wages program. Also,
these employment data pertain to SIC (Standard Industrial Classification)
4911, electric services. Although electric power generation and
distribution are also provided by combination utilities (classified in SIC
493), employment data presented here refer only to SIC 4911. Find out more
in "Employment
and other trends in the electric services industry,"
by David McDermott, Monthly Labor Review, September 1999.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »