I’m getting ready to conduct my next national benchmark study on employee engagement.  This will be the third since 2004, and I’m not expecting the results to be startling, nor surprising.  I’ve got a bet with a colleague to see if engagement drops below 40% and if the level of Unengaged workers rises above 40%.  If you have been reading my blogs or have attended my trainings and seminars, you know where I’m betting.

We just received some news here in Indiana that we are going to lose some more manufacturing jobs.  That’s really not news in a state that has heard the same fact month after month for the last decade.  There are bright spots to be sure (we scored the new Honda plant), however it’s hard pushing against the trends.

Based on the December Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the following industries got smaller in 2007:

• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Wholesale Trade
• Retail Trade
• Transportation & Warehousing
• Information
• Financial Activities

These industries grew in 2007:

• Natural Resources & Mining
• Utilities
• Professional and business services
• Education (public and private)
• Leisure & Hospitality
• Health Services
• Government

You can always count on government to grow, even in a down economy.  In fact, local government employees account for more than one in ten jobs in our national economy, the same percentage as Leisure and hospitality.  I’m sure there is a pithy comment in there somewhere, I’m sure I will find it later. 

Some more nuggets: 

- In terms of local and state government workers, nearly half are in education.  See, not all of them sit in their trucks eating lunch during break time

- In terms of federal workers, about a third are working for the Post Office.  Yikes. Enough said.

The biggest increases in workers?  Services to Buildings & Dwellings (Professional and business services), Food Services and Drinking Places (Leisure and hospitality), Ambulatory Health Care Services (Health Care), and Management & Technical Consulting (that’s me!!)

The biggest losers?  Residential Speciality Contractors (in the Construction industry), Motion Picture and Sound Recording (can you say “writers strike”), and Durable Goods Production Workers (Manufacturing).

We’re moving away from manufacturing and moving towards knowledge and service.  Get used to it…