As manufacturing lost about five million jobs in two decades, the low-wage service sector gained almost 30 million jobs: Change in U.S. employment overall and for construction, manufacturing, and service industries (millions), 1998–2019
| Job Change, 98-2019 (millions) | |
|---|---|
| Construction | 1.3 |
| Manufacturing | -4.7 |
| Services | 28.2 |
| Total employment | 25.1 |
Note: Construction, manufacturing, and services sectors are responsible for the vast majority (99.2% in 2019) of total nonfarm employment (see Appendix Table 1).
Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Analysis of Employment Projections program data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS-EP 2020)