"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:


At the end of 1998, the US employment stats looked like this (in
thousands):

Manufacturing: 18,587
Retail trade: 22,650

As of the 2nd quarter of 2003, they looked like this:

Manufacturing: 14,741
Retail trade: 14,979

Interesting. That's a 20.69% drop for manufacturing and a 33.86% drop
for retail.

I hear in the news all the time how badly manufacturing has been hurt,
but it looks like retail is taking a much bigger beating. That looks
like it at least somewhat supports the generalization that every
manufacturing job supports several retail/service jobs.

Retail is a volatile employer today, in which wages are very low,
professionalism among staff employees is out the window, and relatively few
people approach it as a career. Employment in retail probably is more
sensitive to the state of the economy than any other type of job. My whole
family, BTW, was in retail management, with Sears, Macy's, and the Federated
Department Stores group. I'm the only one in my family who never was in it.

The question of how much manufacturing supports service jobs, and how much
service jobs support manufacturing, is a very interesting one. I asked a
well-known economist about it a few months ago and he acted as if the
question had never occurred to him. He thinks in terms of the two rising and
falling together. I wish I knew more about it.

--
Ed Huntress
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