Data Underload / work

Shifts in Job Distribution

By Nathan Yau

In the 1950s, almost half of all employed people were either in farming or manufacturing. As you can imagine, work changed a bit over the years. Here’s how the distribution of jobs across occupation groups shifted.

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

1950

’60

’70

’80

’90

2000

’10

’17

Source: Census Bureau

Notes

The data comes from a combination of the American Community Survey and the Decennial Census. I downloaded the data via IPUMS. They provide unified occupation classifications, which allows for comparison of jobs over time.

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