What People Do for a Living -- U.S. SuperSector Analysis
Published on: February 11, 2020
BY TED C. JONES, PH.D.
Whenever I travel across the country, wanting to know what people in each locale do for a living is a constant. Answering the question of what type of work people do defines a community from an economic perspective. The various types and numbers of jobs from one community to the next can be dramatically variable and diverse.
Fortunately the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has created a job description framework known as SuperSectors allowing a general categorization of job types. The is a segment of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which “…..is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.”
The following table shows the total of number jobs (thousands) for each of the nine SuperSectors as of the end of January 2020. Other metrics include the percentage of total jobs and respective changes for each SuperSector in the past 12-months and five years. As these metrics are based on non-seasonally adjusted data, they may vary slightly from seasonally adjusted data which are more commonly referenced when describing the job market. In the latest 12-months, for example, government jobs made up 15 percent of all employment, versus 15.8 percent a year ago. A total 167,000 new government jobs were created in the 12-months ending January 2020, and 722,000 in the past five years.
The following outline provides a more refined view of several of the nine SuperSectors categorizing employment included in each of these broad categories.
Employment Supersectors
Total Nonfarm
Mining and Logging (includes oil and gas extraction)
Construction
Manufacturing
Trade, transportation, and utilities
Information
Publishing industries, except Internet
Motion picture and sound recording industries
Broadcasting, except Internet
Telecommunications
Data processing, hosting and related services
Other information services
Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals
Financial Activities
Finance and insurance
Securities, commodity contracts, investments, and funds and trusts
Real estate and rental and leasing
Rental and leasing services
Lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets
Professional and Business Services
Professional and technical services
Legal services
Accounting and bookkeeping services
Architectural and engineering services
Specialized design services
Computer systems design and related services
Management and technical consulting services
Scientific research and development services
Advertising and related services
Other professional and technical services
Management of companies and enterprises
Administrative and waste services
Waste management and remediation services
Education and Health Services
Leisure and Hospitality
Arts, entertainment, and recreation
Performing arts and spectator sports
Museums, historical sites, and similar institutions
Amusements, gambling and recreation
Accommodation and food services
Other Services
Repair and maintenance
Automotive repair and maintenance
Personal and laundry services
Personal care services
Death care services
Dry-cleaning and laundry services
Other personal services
Pet care services
Parking lots and garages
All other personal services, including photofinishing
Membership associations and organizations
Government
For further details and descriptions of job classifications under the NAICS click https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/2017NAICS/2017_NAICS_Manual.pdf Added detail can be seen at https://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/sssd/naics/naicsrch?chart=2017
Ted