1.9 mln Americans work in consumer electronics industry

As of December 2005, the consumer electronics industry employed approximately 1.9 mln people or 1.4% of the US's non-farm workforce. Encompassing employment across the entire value chain, this can be distributed into the categories of retail (574,000), manufacturing (212,000), transportation (38,000), and use (1,073,000). In 2005, the industry added 30,000 jobs to realize a 1.5% industry employment increase. Since 1990, industry employment has increased a total of more than 19%. While general retail productivity increased 52% in the ten years from 1994 to 2004, CE-related retail productivity increased an extraordinary 309%. Over the same ten year period, CE-related manufacturing jumped more than 126%, while general US manufacturing productivity increased 49%.