Here are the Fastest-Declining Jobs in the US

Photographic processing, movie projectors, and extraction and construction workers shed the most jobs in the decade spanning 2012 to 2021, according to a Commercial Cafe analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Jobs for photographic process workers and processing machine operators dropped nearly 88%: in 2012, BLS data showed that nearly 46,000 jobs were filled in the occupation, but, by 2021, that number hit around 5,700.

“While it’s easy (and somewhat reasonable) to point the finger at automation, the drop in job numbers for this profession could be the result of a combination of multiple converging trends,” writes Commercial Cafe’s Ioana Ginsac. “For example, contributing causes might include: an increase in consumer preference for the digital imaging medium, rather than physical prints; fine-tuned, camera-equipped mobile devices that are now more readily accessible; and increased accessibility of complex image processing possibilities for non-professionals.”

The profession declined fastest in 10 states: Virginia (-96%); Arizona, Ohio, and South Carolina (-95%); Texas (-94%); Maryland (-93%); New Jersey (-92%); Washington and New York (-90%); and New Hampshire (-82%).

The number of motion picture projectionists also decreased by a little more than 8,000 in 2012 to about 1,600 last year, a nearly 80% drop.  The reason, according to Ginsac? “The motion picture technology advanced and the movie-going experience became increasingly experiential, the movie theatre business — itself now largely made up of standardized chain multiplex theatres — grew apart from the highly experienced projection specialists who used to man the country’s multitude of movie screens,” she says.

Extraction work helpers also dropped 77%, from 25,840 workers in 2012 to just below 6,000 in 2021, while mining roof bolters dropped nearly 73% and metal and plastic drilling and boring machine workers shrank 67%. And in Indiana, while engine and machine assembly jobs quadrupled, the number of boilermakers here dropped 90%.

Thirteen states saw sharp declines in business or service jobs, with telemarketers dropping by 95% in states like Kansas and South Dakota. Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks were the most rapidly shrinking jobs of the decade in Connecticut, with a 96% drop. And in Illinois, desktop publisher jobs fell 92%, while in Minnesota the number of word processor and typist workers in Minnesota also fell 92%.

In addition, “the Delaware economy shed 92% of machinery maintenance worker jobs in the last decade,” Ginsac says. “Similarly, the number of tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers in Alabama dropped 92%, dwindling from nearly 500 in 2012 to just 40 last year. Further west, earth drillers (except oil and gas) were the sharpest-declining jobs in Oklahoma, where numbers fell 94% in 10 years, as well as in Wyoming, where jobs in this profession dropped by 88%. Meanwhile, in Nebraska, the number of workers on record as paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders fell 86% from 2012 through 2021.”