Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the country would be better off if more people worked in the military and manufacturing

A new YouGov survey explores which industries Americans say would make the country better off or worse off if more people were to work in them. Vast majorities of both Democrats and Republicans think the U.S. would be better off if more people worked in health care, but there’s more division on oil and gas and the news media.

Seven in 10 Americans (71%) think the U.S. would be better off if more Americans worked in health care. Majorities say the country would be better off if more Americans worked in scientific research (67%), education (65%), agriculture (64%), manufacturing (60%), technology (57%), construction (56%), renewable energy (55%), and child care (55%).

Of the 22 industries asked about, the smallest shares say that the country would be better off if more people worked in entertainment (21%), news media (21%), and real estate (21%).

31% of Americans say the U.S. would be worse off if more Americans worked in artificial intelligence. About as many say the same about news media (28%) and government (28%).

More than half of Americans think the country would be no better or worse off if there were more people working in each of the following: retail (57%), restaurants (54%), real estate (53%), and entertainment (52%).

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the country would be better off if more Americans worked in education (77% vs. 63%), renewable energy (74% vs. 40%), and social services (67% vs. 42%).

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the U.S. would be better off if more Americans worked in the military (67% vs. 28%), oil and gas (59% vs. 23%), and mining (49% vs. 17%).

Democrats and Republicans are similarly likely to say the U.S. would be better off if more people worked in health care (77% vs. 72%), technology (59% vs. 63%), and entertainment (25% vs. 20%).

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the country would be worse off if more Americans worked in oil and gas (29% vs. 6%), mining (28% vs. 7%), and the military (20% vs. 1%).

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the U.S. would be worse off if more Americans worked in news media (38% vs. 13%), government (32% vs. 16%), and entertainment (23% vs. 9%).

Men are more likely than women to say the U.S. would be better off if more Americans worked in mining (36% vs. 26%) and in artificial intelligence (31% vs. 22%). Women are more likely than men to say the country would be better off if more people worked in social services (55% vs. 48%).

Americans 65 and older are much more likely than younger adults to say the country would be better off if more people worked in health care (85% vs. 67%), scientific research (77% vs. 64%), agriculture (76% vs. 61%), education (76% vs. 62%), and construction (69% vs. 53%).

Adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to say the U.S. would be better off if more Americans worked in renewable energy (65% vs. 52%) and government (43% vs. 25%).

Related:

See the results for this YouGov survey

— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article

Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted on December 10 – 12, 2025 among 1,100 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4 percentage points.

Image: Getty (Witthaya Prasongsin)