Many journalists, when writing about the economy, focus on the broadest pictures: Gross National Product, total Non-farm employment, etc. But, sometimes the big picture needs supplementing with a narrower focus.
In looking at employment, for example, it helps to break the total employment picture down into three primary sectors.
- Cyclical Services, which include information services, fire, professional and business services plus leisure and hospitality (sports, hotels, gambling, e.g.), Employment in this sector follows the general business cycle.
- Acyclical Services, which include health, education, other services, and government. These services, as the name implies, do not vary with the business cycle as much as the other sectors.
- Goods, i.e., produced goods, which are generally measured with industrial production figures.
Below is a graph of these three sectors, measured in total payrolls for each sector as annualized six-month changes. This chart shows how wide a path unemployment is cutting through our economy. Most everyone is feeling it.
The see the graph and further analysis of sector analysis, follow this link.
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