The line graph shows how many people worked in four different sectors of the US economy from 1960 to 2020. Overall, the number of jobs saw an increasing trend in the retail and healthcare sectors, while the reverse was true for manufacturing and agriculture. For most of the period, manufacturing was the leading industry in terms of employment, but it was eventually overtaken by retail and healthcare.
In 1960, the manufacturing sector employed 15 million people, this being the largest figure in that year. Over the ensuing two decades, this number markedly rose to a chart high of 20 million, after which it reverted to below its 1960 level (13 million jobs). Likewise, the figure for agriculture witnessed a gradual decline, halving from around 6 million jobs in 1960 to 2.5 million in 2020, far behind the remaining industries.
The other two sectors – Retail and Healthcare – bucked the foregoing trend. Over the given period, the retail industry almost tripled, sharply increasing from offering just over 5 million jobs in 1960 to slightly above 15 million in 2020, though the growth slowed down in the last two decades. Healthcare started off much lower at 2.5 million jobs and, sharply increasing between 1960 and 2020, converged with the retail sector at more than 15 million jobs. As a result, both these industries surpassed manufacturing.