Manufacturing in the United States has declined from its heyday decades ago, but it remains a major source of good jobs in most states for people without bachelor’s degrees, according to the latest study in a series by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.
As the manufacturing industry migrated from a stronghold in the Northeast to current hubs in the Southeast and Midwest, its share of employees fell from 23 percent of American workers in 1940 to around 10 percent in 2016 while service jobs grew from 21 percent to 55 percent, according to The Way We Were: The Changing Geography of US Manufacturing from 1940 to 2016.
The study, done in partnership with JP Morgan Chase & Co., pinpoints Indiana and Wisconsin as the only two remaining states where manufacturing is the biggest employment source.
However, manufacturing “still is the top provider of good jobs for workers without a bachelor’s degree in 35 states,” noted Dr. Anthony P. Carnevale, CEW director and the report’s lead author.
Among the study’s other key findings about changes from 1940 to 2016:
•Employment in agriculture, mining, and manufacturing combined fell from more than 40 percent of U.S. workers to less than 15 percent.
•The greatest growth in skilled-service industries was in health services, which increased from 2 percent to 14 percent.
