State Overview -- Change in Missouri Full-time and Part-time Employment 1988-2002
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Bureau of Economic Analysis Reports
The Regional Economic Information System (REIS), of the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, produces detailed reports of income, employment and other data for each county for each calendar year. These data are reported to the Missouri public on the OSEDA web site as the reports become available. However, there is an 18-month lag between the end of the calendar year for which data are reported and when those reports are made available to the public. The BEA reports for amount and sources of personal income (another section of OSEDA regional profiles), full-and part-time employment, farm income and expenses for the 2002 calendar year were made available to the public in July 2004.
Missouri Full-time and Part-time Employment
BEA reports of total full-and part-time employment (for nation, states, counties) classify employment by type and industry as shown in Table 1. The two types are “wage and salary employment” and “proprietors’ employment”. Proprietors are those workers who own and operate their own business. Proprietors are reported as either farm or nonfarm. The combination of those two types is equal to total full-and part-time employment. As shown in Table 1 wage and salary employment in 1988 was 2,402,954 (82.8 percent of total employment) and proprietors’ employment was 501,649 (17.2 percent of total). Those two types combined to account for Missouri’s 2,904,603 total employment in 1988.
Industry employment is reported as the total of farm and nonfarm employment. Nonfarm employment is further divided into “private” employment and “government” employment. As reported in Table 1 farm employment in 1988 was 130,472, 4.5 percent of total employment and nonfarm employment was 2,774,131, 95.5 percent of total employment.
Industry employment is also reported as two inclusive categories: private and government. In 1988, private nonfarm employment totaled 2,383,211 (85.9 percent of total) and government employment was 390,920 (14.1 percent of total). Within the government employment category more than 70 percent were state and local government employees. Included in government employment would be school teachers, civil service workers, town, city and county workers, etc. Military employment (44,350 in 1988) is counted in those places where military personnel are stationed. In Missouri those concentrations include Pulaski County – Fort Leonard Wood – and Johnson County – Whiteman Air Force Base.
Together private and government employment account for the total nonfarm employment of 2,904,603 in 1988.
Changes in Full-and Part-time Employment 1988-2002
Total full-and part-time employment in Missouri increased from 2,904,603 in 1988 to 3,477,873 in 2002 – an increase of 19.7 percent. That is a significant increase considering that Missouri population increased by only 11.0 percent from 1988-2002. That growth in employment was also stimulated by several social and economic trends occurring during the 15-year period. Among those trends were:
- There was a continuing trend toward a higher percentage of mothers and housewives taking employment outside the home.
- There was growth in the number of multiple jobholders. One significant example is that Table 1 reports 109,326 persons employed as farm proprietors in 2002. However, the 2002 Agricultural Census data show that more than half of farm proprietors also hold a full-or part-time jobs off the farm.
- Missouri economic growth and changes in types of products produced have contributed to significant growth in both the number of small businesses and the number of persons who are self employed. Table 1 shows that the 387,282 non-farm proprietors in 1988 increased to 538,666 by 2002 – an increase of 39 percent which was double the rate of increase in total full- and part-time employment during that period.
- There was also a continuing increase in number of high school and/or college students working either full- or part-time while yet in school.
Despite these trends there were many Missouri localities that were experiencing labor shortages, especially during the late 1990s. A major contributing factor to increased number of employed persons was growth in jobs and number of businesses throughout Missouri and other states.
The most important change in employment from 1988 through 2002 during the 1990s was that there were 573,000 more Missourians employed in 2002 than in 1988. Despite that increase the distribution of employment among the sectors remained remarkably stable during that 15-year period. For example:
- Wage and salary workers accounted for 82.8 percent of total full and part-time employment in 1988 and declined slightly to 81.4 percent of the total in 2002. There was however a proportionately large change in nonfarm proprietors – from 13.3 percent of total employed in 1988 to 15.5 percent of total employed in 2002. Nonfarm workers accounted for 95.5 percent of the employed in 1988 and 96.5 percent in 2002.
- The private sector accounted for 82.0 percent of the nonfarm workers in 1988 and government workers accounted for 13.5 percent. In 2002 private sector nonfarm workers accounted for 83.1 percent and government workers remained at 13.5 percent of the total. Farm employment declined from 4.5 percent of total in 1988 to 3.4 percent in 2002.
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Fluctuations in Total Employment from 1988 to 2002
Graph 1 shows some relatively small fluctuations in Missouri wage and salary employment from 1988 to 2002. The graph shows a small decline in wage and salary employment from 1990 to 1991 followed by a steady increase in wage and salary employment from 1991 to 2000. However, another recession began in 2000 producing a small decline in Missouri employment from 2000-2002.
Table 1 shows that wage and salary employment declined from 2.482 million in 1990 to 2.441 million in 1991. During that period there was a national recession and employment declined somewhat across the nation including Missouri. However, the table shows that wage and salary employment increased steadily from 2.440 million in 1991 to 2.882 million in 2000 – an increase of 18 percent. But another recession began in 2000 and resulted in a decline of 27,000 from 2000 to 2001 and an additional 26,000 from 2001 to 2002.
This file last modified Thursday May 07, 2009, 16:01:33
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