Stewart Blog Article

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