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June 1996

The nature of employment growth, 1989-95

Randy Ilg

The largest gains in job growth occurred in the highest-paying occupations; increases also were posted in relatively low-earnings job categories and employment fell among job categories in the middle. This article examines the quality of employment growth, using earnings as the measure of job quality, for a group of 90 major industries and occupations. Unlike previous studies that have focused on changes in employment between two points in time, this analysis adds the dimension of a monthly time series.

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