Table 1:
Aggregate Employment Changes from 1979–1982, by Industry
| Share of total 1979 employment | Log employment change | Employment change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | (2) | (3) | |
| Panel A. Overall and one-digit industries | |||
| All industries | 1.000 | 0.006 | 467,093 |
| Manufacturing | 0.284 | −0.084 | −1,684,627 |
| Construction | 0.061 | −0.139 | −575,107 |
| Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries | 0.004 | 0.131 | 40,200 |
| Transportation and public utilities | 0.062 | 0.013 | 59,944 |
| Wholesale trade | 0.071 | 0.016 | 83,149 |
| Mining | 0.013 | 0.229 | 239,923 |
| Retail trade | 0.203 | 0.017 | 257,134 |
| Finance, insurance, and real estate | 0.070 | 0.060 | 316,449 |
| Services | 0.224 | 0.120 | 2,090,186 |
| Panel B. Two-digit industries with largest employment decrease | |||
| Transportation equipment (manufacturing) | 0.024 | −0.180 | −279,883 |
| General contractors (construction) | 0.018 | −0.223 | −250,039 |
| Special trade contractors (construction) | 0.034 | −0.108 | −242,341 |
| Auto dealers (retail trade) | 0.027 | −0.131 | −232,032 |
| Primary metal (manufacturing) | 0.016 | −0.222 | −229,097 |
| Fabricated metal products (manufacturing) | 0.024 | −0.117 | −188,465 |
| Lumber and wood products (manufacturing) | 0.011 | −0.276 | −181,995 |
| Trucking and warehousing (transportation) | 0.019 | −0.116 | −146,868 |
| Apparel and other textile products (manufacturing) | 0.019 | −0.106 | −129,917 |
| Textile mill products (manufacturing) | 0.012 | −0.161 | −126,208 |
| Panel C. Two-digit industries with largest employment increase | |||
| Legal services (services) | 0.007 | 0.200 | 109,155 |
| Educational services (services) | 0.016 | 0.095 | 114,630 |
| Hotels (services) | 0.014 | 0.110 | 116,017 |
| Depository institutions (finance) | 0.020 | 0.093 | 140,356 |
| Food stores (retail trade) | 0.031 | 0.087 | 196,198 |
| Miscellaneous services (services) | 0.012 | 0.251 | 242,976 |
| Oil and gas extraction (mining) | 0.005 | 0.506 | 249,725 |
| Eating and drinking places (retail trade) | 0.060 | 0.065 | 283,524 |
| Business services (services) | 0.041 | 0.126 | 382,400 |
| Health services (services) | 0.071 | 0.157 | 845,784 |
Notes: I construct this table by aggregating county-level data for the continental United States. Because employment is often suppressed at the county-level, I impute employment using the number of establishments and nationwide information on average employment by establishment size, as described in Appendix C. Source: Census County Business Patterns