The line graph provides information on how many jobs were available in four sectors of the US economy over a sixty-year period from 1960 to 2020.
Overall, it is clear that despite being the dominant employer in the US economy at the start of the period, the number of jobs in manufacturing saw a downward trend. By contrast, retail and healthcare witnessed a steady growth, making both industries the largest employers at the end of the period in question. It is also noticeable that despite a slight increase at the start of the period, the number of jobs in agriculture remained relatively stable.
Regarding manufacturing, the number of jobs stood at precisely 15 million in 1960 before reaching its peak of 20 million in 1980. However, this was followed by a gradual decrease to just around 17 million in 2000, before hitting a low of approximately 13 million in 2020.
Looking at retail and healthcare, in 1960, the number of jobs began at just over 5 million and just under 3 million respectively. There was then a steady rise to just over 15 million in both sectors, with the figures tripling for retail and almost increasing eight-fold for healthcare at the end of the period in question, making the two industries the largest employers.
With regards to agriculture, in 1960 the figure started at just above 5 million jobs, equaling that of retail. Having dropped to just over 3 million in 1980, in the next two decades the number of agriculture jobs remained relatively stable before decreasing slightly to around 2 million in 2020.
