| Sumario: | The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment projections for the period from 1988 to 2000 were borne out in most broad occupations; the chief source of error was the projection of changes in staffing patterns, attributable primarily to the conservative nature of the projections. The BLS occupational employment projections developed for the 1988-2000 period were reasonably accurate, correctly capturing most general occupational trends. As with previous evaluations, however, the inaccuracies that surfaced reflected a conservative tilt to the projections. The primary source of error was the projection of changes in the utilization of occupations by industry, or staffing patterns, rather than the projections of industry employment themselves. Overall, the authors state, the projections for 2000 at the major occupational group level were measurably better than those that had been made for 1995, but those for more fine-grained occupations were not.
|
|---|