Occupations losing the most jobs, 2006-16

The 30 occupations with the largest projected declines between 2006 and 2016 will account for about 1.2 million job losses, the majority of the 1.8 million job losses projected among declining occupations.

[Chart data—TXT]

The ten detailed occupations with the largest projected employment decline are shown in the chart.

Nine of the 30 occupations with the largest declines are in the office and administrative support major group, including stock clerks and order fillers, the occupation with the largest decline of all, 131,000 jobs. Advances in information technologies have automated many clerical tasks and raised the productivity of these workers, causing fewer workers to be needed.

Changes in technology or business practices, and outsourcing to foreign countries, will reduce demand in most of the 30 occupations. None of the 30 occupations is from the services group, the construction and extraction group, or the installation, maintenance, and repair group, which together represent the more difficult occupations to automate or move overseas.

These projections are from the Employment Projections program. To learn more, see "Employment Projections: 2006-16," USDL news release 07-1847, and the five articles in the November 2007 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.