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The furniture
industry is not a major employer in the United States. Employment in the
American furniture industry stood at 491,200 as of 2002. This is less
than 0.4% of the overall employment in the United States. It seems that
the furniture industry lends itself less to labor-saving technologies
than other industries. Between
1982 and 2002, furniture employment grew by 13.6% while total
manufacturing employment fell by 11%. Hourly wage rate in the furniture
and fixtures industry averaged $12.65 compared to $15.30 for
manufacturing as a whole in 2002. The average furniture employee's
earnings were just 82.7% of those of the average manufacturing employee.
During the past 20 years, this gap has gradually narrowed. The reason for
this difference must be found in the fact that the output per worker
(labor productivity) in the furniture sector falls short of that among
all manufacturers by almost 50%.
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