The line graph illustrates the job opportunities across four sectors of the economy in the United States over a sixty-year period from 1960 to 2020.
Overall, it is noticeable that manufacturing and agriculture sectors experienced a decline, while healthcare and retail soared significantly throughout the period. By contrast, manufacturing started as the highest sector, eventually this figure was surpassed by retail and agriculture by the end of the period.
In 1960, manufactoring sector was accounted for 15 million jobs, this figure later peaked at 20 million in 1980, before it began to decline for 4 decades from 1980 to 2020 and finished 12.5 million. Likewise, agriculture also experienced a decline but much slower trajectory at over 5 million in 1960. This trend later slightly decreased to around 4.7 million then remained stable until 2000, before it ended at 4.5 million jobs.
Conversely, retail also began at the same level as agriculture at over 5 million, but this pattern showed a dramatic increase to 15 million in 2000, remained slightly stable before closing at 15.1 million. Similarly, healthcare commenced at approximately 2.5 million in 1960, this figure later soared significantly throughout the period, eventually reached 15.1 million jobs, surpassing manufacturing.