The Fastest Growing and Dying Industries in America, 2012 Edition

In May 2011 we took a look at the 10 fastest growing and dying industries in the United States, according to data compiled by market researcher IBISWorld. In April of this year the company published new findings that are worth reviewing.

Like last year, IBISWorld looked at the change in revenue over a 10-year period (2002-2012) and then projected trends out five years to 2017. IBISWorld did not provide the figures for the 2002 to 2012 period in this year's report, so for the purposes of the lists below, I've ranked the industries by projected change in revenue from 2012 to 2017. (Click here for IBISWorld's report on the fastest growing industries, or here for the report on the fastest dying, both PDFs.)

The 10 fastest growing industries in America are:

1. Green & Sustainable Building Construction: 179.3% increase ($103 billion to $287.9 billion)
2. Social Network Game Development: 170.7% increase ($4.5 billion to $12.3 billion)
3. 3-D Printing Manufacturing: 92.2% increase ($1.7 billion to $3.3 billion)
4. Self-tanning Product Manufacturing: 65.9% increase $609.3 million to $1 billion)
5. Online Eyeglasses & Contact Lens Sales: 52.5% increase ($347.7 million to $530.3 million)
6. Solar Panel Manufacturing: 48.1% increase ($4.6 billion to $6.8 billion)
7. Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: 37.7% increase ($52.8 billion to $72.7 billion)
8. Pilates & Yoga Studios: 26.1% increase ($6.9 billion to $8.6 billion)
9. Hot Sauce Production: 22.4% increase ($1 billion to $1.3 billion)
10. For-profit Universities: 19.3% increase ($27 billion to $32.2 billion)

And the 10 fastest dying industries in America are:

1. DVD, Game & Video Rental: 52.5% decrease ($5.9 billion to $2.8 billion)
2. Photofinishing: 40.6% decrease ($1.5 billion to $897.1 million)
3. Recordable Media Manufacturing: 20.1% decrease ($4.1 billion to $3.3 billion)
4. Newspaper Publishing: 19.1% decrease ($29.3 billion to $23.7 billion)
5. Hardware Manufacturing: 11.3% decrease ($7.5 billion to $6.6 billion)
6. Costume & Team Uniform Manufacturing: 9.8% decrease ($986.7 million to $889.6 million)
7. Shoe & Footwear Manufacturing: 8.7% decrease ($1.7 billion to $1.5 billion)
8. Appliance Repair: 5.6% decrease ($3.7 billion to $3.5 billion)
9. Money Market & Other Banking: 4.2% decrease ($834.4 million to $799.3 million)
10. Women's & Girls' Apparel Manufacturing: 3.8% decrease ($8.6 billion to $8.3 billion)

Compared with last year's lists, we find some interesting trends. When it comes to the most rapidly advancing industries, almost every single sector from 2011 is missing from the list. There are some correlated industries (2011 had solar power generation and generic video game development), but otherwise, every industry that was projected to grow in 2011 didn't make the top 10 this year. Whether that's a fault of the economy behind the businesses or the economists behind IBISWorld is anybody's guess.