The 2008 Economic Report of the President presents some clear data on the changing nature of the U.S. economy (and the resulting change in the U.S. workforce). Looking at the U.S. workforce employed in non-agricultural jobs between 1960 and 2007:

• 2007 - 16.2% in goods-producing jobs, 83.8% in service-producing jobs
• 2000 - 18.7% in goods-producing jobs, 81.3% in service-producing jobs
• 1990 - 21.7% in goods-producing jobs, 78.3% in service-producing jobs
• 1980 - 26.9% in goods-producing jobs, 73.2% in service-producing jobs
• 1970 - 31.2% in goods-producing jobs, 68.8% in service-producing jobs
• 1960 - 36.3% in goods-producing jobs, 64.7% in service-producing jobs

It is amazing to see that within the working lifespan of the oldest Baby Boomers (the leading edge of the generation born between 1946 and 1964) the goods-producing component of the U.S. workforce has been reduced by 50%. We have indeed become a knowledge economy, staffed by knowledge workers. The continuing challenge for organizations will be to find the knowledge and expertise they need to execute.

You can find the full report (all 358 pages of it!) here: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/2008/2008_erp.pdf

This entry was posted by Kimball Norup on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 3:42 pm in Knowledge Workers. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.