Beautiful question! We’ve always had a soft spot for an obscure update from the U.S. Department of Labor in which it announces which jobs no longer get broken out in separate counts — this year, pour one out for “breakfast cereal manufacturing.” But for this question, we felt compelled to step back and look at the (really) big picture.
Complete Story
11/03/2025
The Biggest Careers that Have Now Vanished, According to Data
The leading answers are more obvious than you think
What are some careers that used to be huge, but have now completely or mostly disappeared?
To get rolling, we needed to translate into modern terms the archaic and often anarchic occupations of the early censuses — shout out to drovers, hostlers, sextons, whitewashers, hucksters, "galloon, gimp and tassel makers" and rag pickers.
Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.
