The two pie charts compare the share of the workforce employed in six economic sectors in one country in 1980 and 2020.
Overall, the economy shifted decisively away from agriculture and manufacturing towards services. Whereas farming and factory work together accounted for most jobs in 1980, the service sectors dominated employment four decades later, and only construction remained broadly stable.
In 1980, agriculture, forestry and fishing formed the largest sector, providing 34% of all jobs, followed by manufacturing at 27%. By 2020, however, the agricultural share had collapsed to just 9%, roughly a quarter of its earlier level, while manufacturing had almost halved to 14%.
The service industries expanded correspondingly. Finance and business services saw the most dramatic growth, rising from a mere 6% to 28% and becoming the biggest employer of all. Public services, which include health and education, almost doubled from 12% to 23%, and retail and hospitality also grew, from 13% to 19%. Construction, by contrast, changed very little, slipping from 8% to 7%, so that it remained one of the two smallest sectors in both years.
In many of the world’s major cities, the cost of buying or renting a home has risen far faster than wages, so that teachers, nurses and other ordinary workers are being priced out. This problem has several causes, but it can be eased through a combination of planning reform and public investment.
The most fundamental cause is a mismatch between supply and demand. Successful cities attract employers and therefore newcomers, yet the construction of new homes rarely keeps pace, often because planning rules are slow and restrictive or because suitable land is scarce. A second factor is that housing has increasingly become an investment rather than simply a place to live. Wealthy buyers, both domestic and foreign, purchase properties to profit from rising prices or to let them as short-term holiday rentals, which removes homes from the market for local residents. Long periods of cheap borrowing have encouraged this speculation further.
Tackling the problem requires action on both fronts. First, governments should make it easier to build, for example by speeding up planning decisions, permitting taller buildings near transport links and converting empty offices into flats. Secondly, they can expand the supply of affordable homes directly, either by funding social housing, as Vienna has done successfully for decades, or by requiring developers to include a proportion of low-cost units in every large project. Finally, the speculative side of the market can be curbed through higher taxes on empty or second homes and tighter limits on short-term letting.
None of these measures will work overnight, and each carries political costs, since existing homeowners often oppose new development near them. Nevertheless, a city in which only the wealthy can live will eventually struggle to staff its schools, hospitals and businesses. Making housing affordable is therefore not only a matter of fairness but also of long-term economic survival.