We recently partnered with Catherine Mulbrandon at VisualizingEconomics.com to create a series of treemaps that illustrate important aspects of the labor market. In this post we provide a sneak peek at two of the graphics she created. The remainder will be posted in An Illustrated Guide to Income in the United States, a booklet from Catherine set to be released this summer.
These two graphics are based on EMSI’s labor market database, which is a combination of over 80 public and private data sources. More specifically, the first table shows job change for all occupations by industry (based on 2-digit supersectors, as defined by the North America Industry Classification System) and the second shows occupation change by education level. The data is from 2001-2011.
Red indicates decline and blue indicates growth.
Each square on the graphic indicates a specific 5-digit occupation classified by the Standard Occupational Classification system. There are over 800 unique squares present on the charts. Large squares, like the ones on the upper right and in the retail trade sector, indicate a lot of jobs for the specific occupation code. Smaller squares indicate occupations with less jobs.
In the graphic above we have pulled together occupation data related to all 20 NAICS supersectors. Government, health care, and retail trade have the largest employment. Utilities, mining, and management of companies have the fewest jobs. Also note the size of the squares within each industry sector. Here are a few observations:
- Broad momentum. It is interesting to note how each broad industry sector tended to either be dominated by growth or decline. For instance, with very few exceptions, almost every occupation within the manufacturing sector declined from 2001-2011. The same holds true for construction, information, agriculture, and, to a certain extent, retail trade. Conversely, sectors like health care, educational services, professional/scientific/technical services, accommodation and even arts tended to show occupational growth.
- Mixed sectors. Other industry sectors like finance, administrative, real estate, wholesale trade, and government were much more mixed.
The graphic above shows the distribution of jobs across all levels of educational attainment. We use the same 5-digit SOC codes and group them according to what their typical educational attainment is. Where possible, occupation titles are included so you can get a sense of where certain jobs fall. Here are a few quick observations:
- The OJT sectors (on-the-job training) are huge. This includes short-term OJT (lower right), moderate-term OJT (upper left), long-term OJT (middle right), and work experience in a related field (center). Also notice how the occupations in these sectors are less stable than the others. This is consistent with what was observed in the latest recession — jobs with higher education levels tend to perform better in tough economic times.
- Advanced degrees showed growth. Over the past 10 years, every occupation associated with a more advanced degree (master’s, doctoral, professional) showed some sort of growth.
- The other sectors have mixed results. Bachelor’s degrees showed more stability over the past 10 years, but there are a handful of occupations that declined since 2001. The same holds true for associate’s, postsecondary vocational awards, and degrees plus work experience.
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1) great viz 2) data seems funky
A huge cut above most visualizations.
However, looking at the data, can it really be the case that real estate agents and financial advisors are among the highest growth jobs? I can hardly think of worse careers during this period. I suspect the 2001 to 2011 data slice hides two huge job destruction periods in 2000 and 2008.
Each square on the graphic
Each square on the graphic indicates a specific 5-digit occupation classified by the Standard Occupational Classification system. There are over 800 unique squares present on the charts. Large squares, like the ones on the upper right and in the retail trade sector, indicate a lot of jobs for the specific occupation code. Smaller squares indicate occupations with less jobs.
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Data response
Good question. These visualizations are based on EMSI's complete employment dataset, which includes proprietors. The self-employed, or workers not covered by unemployment insurance and not captured in typical BLS data, factor heavily into the mix for real estate agents and financial advisors. Largely because of this additional component, these two occupations added the most total jobs in the US from 2001-2011.
Real estate agents experienced explosive growth from 2001-2007 before tailing off from 2008-2011. Financial advisor jobs, meanwhile, were pretty much stagnant from 2001-2006 before taking off; even during the recession, the occupation grew.
Email me (jwright at economicmodeling.com) if you'd like to see specific data.
Josh Wright
Senior Editor, EMSI
written
Very helpful, a well written piece. Looking forward for more such posts from you.Cool cufflinks