Which Industries Create More Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis

The objective of this paper is to identify high employment industries in Australia, Japan and the U.S using input-output (IO) analysis. It is found that (1) the high and low employment generating industries in 1980 and/or 1990 are almost the same as those in 1997. Thus on a relative basis, there is no evidence that high employment generating industries have changed since 1980; and (2) the high and low employment generating industries are very similar across these three countries. Four of the consistently high employment generating industries in these countries are Food, Beverage and Tobacco; Chemicals, Petroleum, Coal, Rubber & Non-Metallic Minerals; Basic Metals/Fabricated Products; and Electricity, Gas and Water, with the first three industries being part of manufacturing.