Changes

Friday's New York Times article "Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of Economy" has me thinking about the workforce of the past.

It begins with this assessment of the present:

“These jobs aren’t coming back,” said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C. “A lot of production either isn’t going to happen at all, or it’s going to happen somewhere other than the United States. There are going to be fewer stores, fewer factories, fewer financial services operations. Firms are making strategic decisions that they don’t want to be in their businesses.”

And says:

"This dynamic has proved true in past recessions as well, with fading industries pushed to the brink during downturns before others emerged to create jobs when economic growth inevitably resumed."

My questions are:

1. Aside from manufacturing (which is a huge loss), what industries have been lost in the past 50 or 100 years?
2. What were the 10 largest industries (by percent of employment) at regular intervals during the past 100 years?
3. Once we identify those industries that have been lost, which were lost to competition/trade (such as manufacturing moving overseas) and which were lost to obsolescence?

I would appreciate suggestions of workforce history resources that could help answer these questions.