In the long-term, the U.S. employment rate is projected to trend around 60.00 percent in 2023 and 61.00 percent in 2024. However, where this growth will occur most greatly differs in terms of the industrial sector and geographical locale.
A new study has revealed the industries with the highest and lowest employment growth rates in the U.S.. The study was conducted by a document management company called SmallPDF, who analysed U.S. government issued census data.
The focus of the review was to find out the change in the number of employees per sector in each U.S. state, ranking each state’s highest growth job sectors.
According to results, the industries with the highest and lowest employment growth rates in the U.S. are:
| Sector | 2020 | 2021 | Change (percentage) |
| Transportation and warehousing, and utilities | 8576862 | 9237812 | 7.71% |
| Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services | 18312454 | 19360141 | 5.72% |
| Public administration | 7271189 | 7521062 | 3.44% |
| Construction | 10416196 | 10773757 | 3.43% |
| Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing | 10319201 | 10659331 | 3.30% |
| Educational services, and health care and social assistance | 36315080 | 36749102 | 1.20% |
| Manufacturing | 15617461 | 15738828 | 0.78% |
| Retail trade | 17195083 | 17307114 | 0.65% |
| Civilian employed population 16 years and over | 155888980 | 156380433 | 0.32% |
| Other services, except public administration | 7516616 | 7170404 | -4.61% |
| Information | 3066743 | 2908107 | -5.17% |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining | 2658413 | 2445458 | -8.01% |
| Wholesale trade | 3971773 | 3616410 | -8.95% |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services | 14651909 | 12892907 | -12.01% |
In terms of the percentage increase or decrease (the latter represented by a minus sign), this refers to the period 2020-2021. Across the various gains and losses, the unemployment rate remains steady at 3.7 per cent (based on November 2022 data).
With the data pattern, the job market moves depending on the economic and political situation each state transitions through. At different times one sector might offer more employment opportunities than others, and it all depends on the external factors.
In general, the U.S. the industries that registered the highest growth in the number of employees across all states include transportation and warehousing, manufacturing and public administration.
There are some regional variations, however. In New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts the industry that registered the highest growth in the number of employees was Agriculture, Foresting and Fishing. While in North Dakota is the only state that registers the highest growth in the number of employees in Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services (at 1.32 percent).
Such variations show that the U.S. economy continues to show wide disparity and variations in terms of economic outcomes and life chances.
