Page 564 - Economics

CONFIRMING PAGES

PART SEVEN
496
Microeconomics of Resource Markets
TABLE 25.5 The 10 Fastest-Growing U.S. Occupations in TABLE 25.6 The 10 Most Rapidly Declining U.S. Occupations
Percentage Terms, 2004–2014 in Percentage Terms, 2004–2014
Employment, Employment,
Thousands of Jobs Thousands of Jobs
Percentage Percentage
Occupation 2004 2014 Increase* Occupation 2004 2014 Increase*
Home health aides 624 974 56% Meter readers, utilities 50 27 45%
Data communication analysts 231 357 55 Textile machine operators 148 81 45
Medical assistants 387 589 52 Credit authorizers, checkers,
and clerks 67 39 41
Physician assistants 62 93 50
Railroad brake, signal,
Software engineers, 460 682 48
and switch operators 17 11 39
applications
Mailing clerks 160 101 37
Physical therapist assistants 59 85 44
Sewing machine operators 256 163 37
Dental hygienists 158 226 43
Telephone operators 39 25 36
Software engineers, systems 340 486 43
File clerks 255 163 36
Dental assistants 267 382 43
Computer operators 149 101 33
Personal home care aides 701 988 41
Photographic processing
*Percentages and employment numbers may not reconcile due to rounding. machine operators 54 38 31
Source : Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Projections,” www.bls.gov .
*Percentages and employment numbers may not reconcile due to rounding.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Projections,” www.bls.gov.
presence of private and public insurance has allowed peo-
ple to buy more health care than most could afford indi-
vidually. imports. Those jobs are therefore rapidly disappearing in
Three of the fastest-growing occupations are directly the United States.
related to computers. The increase in the demand for data As we indicated, the “top-10” lists shown in Tables
communication analysts and computer software engineers 25.5 and 25.6 are based on percentage changes. In terms of
arises from the rapid rise in the demand for computers, absolute job growth and loss, the greatest projected em-
computer services, and Internet use. It also results from the ployment growth between 2004 and 2014 is for retail
rising marginal revenue productivity of these particular salespersons ( 736,000 jobs). The main sources of this
workers, given the vastly improved quality of the computer growth are rising incomes and rising population. The
and communications equipment they work with. More- greatest projected absolute decline in employment is for
over, price declines on such equipment have had stronger farmers and ranchers ( 155,000 jobs). This decline re-
output effects than substitution effects, increasing the de- flects the income-inelastic demand for food, enhanced
mand for these kinds of labor. physical productivity of farm equipment, and the consoli-
In contrast, Table 25.6 lists the 10 U.S. occupations dation of smaller farms into agribusinesses.
with the greatest projected job loss (in percentage terms)
between 2004 and 2014. Eight of the occupations owe
their declines mainly to “labor-saving” technological Elasticity of Resource Demand
change. For example, automated or computerized equip- The employment changes we have just discussed have re-
ment has greatly reduced the need for meter readers, tele- sulted from shifts in the locations of resource demand
phone operators, credit personnel, railroad workers, curves. Such changes in demand must be distinguished from
mailroom clerks, and filing clerks. The advent of digital changes in the quantity of a resource demanded caused by
photography explains the projected decline in the employ- a change in the price of the specific resource under consid-
ment of people operating photographic processing equip- eration. Such a change is caused not by a shift of the de-
ment. The significant decline in the number of traditional mand curve but, rather, by a movement from one point to
computer operators relates to the rapid expansion of net- another on a fixed resource demand curve. Example: In
worked personal computers. Figure 25.1 we note that an increase in the wage rate from
The remaining two occupations in the declining em- $5 to $7 will reduce the quantity of labor demanded from
ployment list are related to textiles and apparel. The U.S. 5 to 4 units. This is a change in the quantity of labor de-
demand for these goods is increasingly being filled through manded as distinct from a change in demand .

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