Employment by Sector

Nongovernment services employed about 22 million people in 1950 and more than 100 million by 2017. Manufacturing employed about 14 million in 1950, peaked near 19 million around 1979, and had fallen to roughly 12 million by 2017, below where it began. Natural resources and construction stayed close to flat throughout.

That shift is the background to much of this chapter. The jobs that unions organised most successfully were concentrated in manufacturing, which is one reason union membership fell as services grew. The slider reads the three series at any year. The values are sampled from the book's figure every few years, so they trace its lines rather than the published employment counts.