Workers are drawn to different occupations as the structure of the local economy evolves. These changes indicate which career paths and skills are being developing in the county.

Since 2000, the number of Lancaster County residents in occupations related to Management, Business, Science and Arts has increased by 61%, and those in Service jobs by 29%. The number of people employed by the Production, Transportation and Material Moving sector declined by 7%, and those in Sales and Office jobs by 5%.

Over the same period, the number of City of Lancaster residents in occupations related to Management, Business, Science and Arts has increased by 88%, and those in Service jobs by 18%. Meanwhile, the number of residents in Production, Transportation and Material Moving have decreased by 8%, and those in Sales and Office jobs have decreased by 7%.

The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined 5 years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.