A graphic overview of employment and earnings in the 1990s.

• Author: Marcus, Morton J.

The 1990s were a fascinating decade for the American economy. We opened with a recession and ended in a boom. This article offers a summary of the employment and earnings during the decade with emphasis on industries and states. While many people are focused on the warts of the decade now being revealed, history may yet record the 1990s as one of our most successful eras.

The total number of jobs in the U.S. grew by 28 million from 1990 to 2000. More than half of this growth (14.6 million) was in services with another 4.4 million jobs added in retail trade. Nine of the 14 sectors examined in this article expanded employment while the other five declined (see Figure 1).

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In percentage terms, the number of jobs grew by 20.1 percent in the U.S. with agricultural services, forestry, and fishing having the strongest growth. Although manufacturing lost nearly 600,000 jobs, the percentage decline was only 3 percent (see Figure 2).

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The stock market boom of the 1990s and the growth in the diversity of financial instruments allowed the finance, insurance, and real estate sector to lead the nation in percentage gain of earnings per job at 87.7 percent. Closely following was mining at 85.7 percent. The gain for all jobs was 44.3 percent. The weakest sector was farming at a mere 15.4 percent. Note that these gains are all in nominal terms and do not account for changes in prices, which grew by 39.9 percent. Thus, six of the 14 sectors had falling real earnings per job in the 1990s (see Figure 3).

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Rapidly growing job markets should indicate rapid growth in earnings per job. This relationship was not strong in the 1990s. Agricultural services and construction were among the top three sectors in job growth, but both had growth in earnings per job that failed to top the 40 percent line needed to outpace inflation in prices. Mining had the second best growth in earnings per job, but the second lowest growth rate in jobs. This effect was probably associated with strong productivity growth in the mining sector as capital was substituted for labor (see Figure 4).

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Finance, insurance, and real estate was the leading sector in growth of earnings per job in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Mining held that honor in 14 states. Services, which was the leading source of employment gains in every state, was the leader in earnings per job in the state of Washington. In eight states...