Career Guide to Industries
Overview and Outlook
The U.S. economy is comprised of industries with diverse characteristics. For each industry
covered in the Career Guide, detailed information is provided about specific characteristics: The
nature of the industry, working conditions, employment, occupational composition, training and
advancement requirements, earnings, and job outlook. This chapter provides an overview of
these characteristics and the outlook for the various industries and economy as a whole.
Nature of the Industry
Industries are defined by the processes they use to produce goods and services. Workers in the
United States produce and provide a wide variety of products and services and, as a result, the
types of industries in the U.S. economy range widely-from agriculture, forestry, and fishing to
aerospace manufacturing. Each industry has a unique combination of occupations, production
techniques, inputs and outputs, and business characteristics. Understanding the nature of the
industry is important because it is this unique combination that determines working conditions,
educational requirements, and the job outlook for each of the industries discussed in the Career
Guide.
Industries consist of many different places of work, called establishments. Establishments are
physical locations at which people work, such as the branch office of a bank, a gasoline service
station, a school, a department store, or a plant that manufactures machinery. Establishments
range from large factories and corporate office complexes employing thousands of workers to
small community stores, restaurants, professional offices, and service businesses employing only
a few workers. Establishments should not be confused with companies or corporations, which
are legal entities. Thus, a company or corporation may have a single establishment or more than
one establishment. Establishments that use the same or similar processes to produce goods or
services are organized together into industries. Industries