palletcentral.com PalletCentral • November-December 2019 19
U.S. Department of Labor Industry
Employment Forecast: 2018-2028
n Industry employment is projected to grow at an annual rate
of 0.5 percent from 2018 to 2028, slower than the annual
rate of 0.8 percent from 2008 to 2018. Employment will
increase to about 169.4 million over the projections decade.
n The service-providing sector as a whole will grow at a pro-
jected rate of 0.6 percent annually, slightly faster than the
annual rate of 0.5 percent for industry employment overall.
This growth is projected to add more than 7.6 million jobs,
resulting in 136.8 million jobs in the service-providing sector
by 2028. After declining slightly from 2008 to 2018 (-0.3
percent annually), the goods-producing sector is expected
to change little from 2018–28, with an annual growth rate
of 0.1 percent.
n The sectors projected to experience the fastest annual
employment growth are health care and social assistance
(1.6 percent), private educational services (1.2 percent), and
construction (1.1 percent). These three sectors alone are
projected to add more than 4.6 million jobs by 2028—includ-
ing 3.4 million new jobs projected in healthcare and social
assistance.
n Five sectors are projected to experience employment
declines from 2018 to 2028: retail trade, wholesale trade,
utilities, federal government, and manufacturing. Retail
trade is projected to decline by 0.1 percent annually, result-
ing in an employment decrease of 153,700 jobs. One factor
contributing to this decline is a shift to e-commerce, which
is also driving employment growth in the transportation and
warehousing sector.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. September 4, 2019. www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecopro.pdf
