Over the weekend, We discussed furniture rental consultants for the proposition that 34% require standing about half the time; that the SVP range is below; that the occupation is one of 24 in the O*NET classification of counter and rental clerks; and that the occupational group consists of 442,100 jobs in the national economy as of 2014.
I know the next question. What about counter clerk, photofinishing? This occupation belongs to the same SOC group and the same comments, but a different industry. The DOT describes the occupation as occurring in the photofinishing industry. That one is not listed in the excel spreadsheet that forms the Employment Projections from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, for SOC group 41-2021. So we have to use a different tool, the NAICS search.
NAICS stands for North American Industry Classification System. We search by using the NAICS search. Using photofinishing as the search term we get:
NAICS Title
Counter clerks would not work in merchant wholesale so commonsense eliminates NAICS code 423410, Photographic Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers. That leaves the two photofinishing six-digit codes. County Business Patterns provides industry employment data:
| 81292 | Photofinishing | 7,658 | 142,926 | 483,525 | 724 | |
| 812921 | Photofinishing Laboratories (except One-Hour) | 6,884 | 138,479 | 463,615 | 536 | |
| 812922 | One-Hour Photofinishing | 774 | 4,447 | 19,910 | 188 |
The five-digit code is the parent, the two six-digit codes are the children. Photofinishing Laboratories (except One-Hour) plus One-Hour Photofinishing(6,884 + 774) comprise photofinishing (7,758).
Wait, wait, now just wait one darn minute. County Business Patterns says that total industry employment -- not just counter clerks -- amounts to 7,658 jobs? We don't get to make up the numbers but we do get to read. Let's check the employment projections but we will have to go up in specificity of the NAICS code because these two are too small.
| 812900 | Other personal services | 0.7 | 0.2 |
Counter clerks cannot make up more than 700 jobs on the employment projections in the four-digit code for NAICS code 812900 Other Personal Services. They represent 0.2% of industry employment. In the photofinishing industry, counter clerks make up 15 jobs (0.002 * 7,658 = 15.3).
How many counter clerk jobs exist in the national economy? Taking administrative notice of the OOH along with the employment projections and the CBP using the NAICS search tool results in a total of 15 jobs in the nation. The occupation does not exist in significant numbers.
Do the numbers of job projections include the mere existence of the position or is it only jobs that need to be filled? I asked this because (Counter Clerks -- DOT 249.366-010) description entails exactly what a counter clerk at a Walgreens would do. Between Walgreens and Rite Aid alone, they have over 13,000 locations in the US, lets say half of these locations have a photo department, that is 6,500 jobs, not to mention CVS and all the other mom and pops stores. Wouldn't there be more than 15 jobs?
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ReplyDeleteMere existence. Do the clerks at the local pharmacy have duties other than:
ReplyDeleteReceives film for processing, loads film into equipment that automatically processes film for subsequent photo printing, and collects payment from customers of photofinishing establishment.
If they do, then they are not counter clerks. They have other functions that include counter clerk responsibility. I did try to get film at Costco ... they don't. Other than professionals and hobbyists, most of us don't use film. This is the digital age.