Jul 26, 2025
š Americans and Their Changing Jobs Over the Last 20 Years
Key Takeaways
Re-imagining the entire American workforce as 100 people shows us that between 2002 and 2024:
- Office & Admin jobs saw the sharpest decline, dropping from 18 to 12 workers, likely due to automation and digitization.
- Manufacturing jobs also declined, falling from 8 to 6 workers, continuing its long-term contraction.
- However, Healthcare support roles (Health Assistants & Aides) more than doubled, rising from 2 to 5 per 100 workers, driven by an aging population.
ā ļø Data Note
The BLS does not collect data around the farming sector, except for certain support activities (logging etc).
The # of workers in this category rounded down to 0 when re-imagining the workforce as 100 people.