Greater Philadelphia’s economy is more knowledge-based than ever before.
Highly skilled workers now make up 44.8% of the region's total employment (from industries such as education and health services, professional and business services - 19.9%, professional and business services - 15.2%, financial activities - 7.6% and information technology - 2.1%).
In 1990, the manufacturing sector accounted for 13.7% of total non-farm employment in the region; by 2009 the sector’s employment share had fallen to 6.9%. By contrast, in 1990 the private, services-providing sectors had 67.5% of the region’s total employment, by 2009 these sectors accounted for 75.3 percent of total employment due primarily to the rising importance of the knowledge economy.
Greater Philadelphia's annual non-farm employment during 2009 averaged 2.9 million workers, fifth largest among the U.S.'s ten largest metro areas based on their July 1, 2008 total population.
The growth rate between 1990 and 2009 is about 0.5%.
Source: Global Insight. Fall 2008 County Forecast. Bureau of the Census, 2008 County Population Estimates. Global Insight-Spring 2009 Forecast.
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