March 3, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
More temporary workers expected in
certain blue-collar occupations
Employment of temporary workers is expected to
grow by nearly 1.4 million from 1996 to 2006, and the distribution of occupations in the
personnel supply services industry also is projected to shift. While the share of
white-collar administrative support occupations will drop 4.4 percentage points over the
period, the blue-collar operators, fabricators, and laborers’ share is expected to
increase 4.0 percentage points.
[Chart data—TXT]
In 1996, about 655,000 temporary help employees worked in operators,
fabricators, and laborers occupations. That employment total is expected to increase 77
percent by 2006, to nearly 1.2 million. The two specific occupations within the group with
the largest expected temporary help employment increases are machine setters, setup
operators, operators, and tenders (121 percent) and hand packers and packagers (100
percent).
In contrast, the expected growth rate for temporary administrative support jobs—at
382,000 or 36 percent—will be considerably slower. Employment of general office
clerks (8.0 percent) and typists (8.8 percent) is projected to grow the least of any
administrative support occupations.
These data on projected employment growth by industry are a product of the BLS Employment Projections program. More information
can be obtained in "The Changing Temporary Workforce" (PDF
719K), Occupational Outlook
Quarterly, Spring 1999. More detailed industry-occupation projections are
available in the BLS bulletin, "Career Guide to Industries."Â
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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