Western Europe: employment by sector 1900-2000| ��ƽ��

Share of the workforce employed in major sectors in Western Europe in select years between 1900 and 2000

Characteristic	Services	Industry, energy, construction	Agriculture, forestry, fishing
2000	68.7%	28.4%	2.9%
1973	47.6%	43.4%	9%
1950	36.3%	40.8%	22.9%
1910	27.5%	36.7%	35.9%
1900	25%	36.5%	38.1%

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Release date

December 2006

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Region

Europe, EU

Survey time period

1900 to 2000

Supplementary notes

Figures may not add up to 100 due to rounding

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Throughout the 20^th century, employment structures in Western Europe gradually transitioned from being primarily agriculture and industry based, to then being dominated by service industries. The agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector saw the most drastic change over this period, with its share of the total workforce dropping from over 38 percent to less than 3 percent between 1900 and 2000. Employment in industrial sectors saw most growth between 1900 and 1973, before dropping significantly in the last quarter century. It was in the second half of the 1900s when the service sector became the largest employer in Western Europe, jumping from 36 percent of the workforce in 1950 to 69 percent in 2000. Generally speaking, reduced employment in agricultural and, later, industrial sectors was largely due to mechanization and automation, which meant that output from these sectors remained relatively healthy despite having a lower share of the labor force.