Trends In Consumption

3 Pages 765 Words

In the not too distant past a response to the question "Where do you work?" would usually have included the phrase "Where I've worked for 40 years." Today, Americans change jobs more frequently and the number of people working "at home" is on the rise. These shifts, and their causes, have implications for our society far beyond where we work. The focus has turned to the major employment shifts of the last quarter-century.
Five million fewer Americans are employed in manufacturing jobs than 25 years ago, three million fewer than at the last cyclical peak in August 1998. However, in another respect this trend has been ongoing for some time. As a percentage of total jobs, manufacturing employment has been in decline for decades.
Technological advance is largely responsible for the relative decline of manufacturing jobs, although other factors are also at play. Despite fewer manufacturing jobs, America produces more manufactured goods now than ever, but its production is proportionally lower relative to its total consumption. We produce more with fewer workers due to technological improvement. This increased efficiency means consumers pay less. Recognizing this market-driven pricing signal is vital to understanding the changing jobs environment. Prices determine where we direct our energies in production, investment, and risk-taking.
Over the same period when a net five million manufacturing jobs were lost, the private sector created over 37.5 million net new jobs. This represents an increase of more than 51%, during a period when the total population grew just 30%. Moreover, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, not surprisingly, there are many categories of employment today that did not exist 25 years ago. Some did not exist even a decade ago.
Many of these growth categories are obvious, like the computer industry or new internet-based endeavors or healthcare. Technological advances clearly played a role. We purchase comp...