"Apiculture, which primarily consists of raising bees, collecting and gathering honey, and facilitating the pollination of fruits and nut crops, has grown from 1,515 U.S. employees in 2005 to 2,984"

In terms of numbers, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm), there are 7.9 million unemployed Americans, and since the unemployment rate is currently 5% (same source) this means that 158 million Americans are employed.

So, beekeepers relying on beekeeping to make a living thus represent only 0.0000189% of the working population, a number so small relative to the rest of the work force that it is almost as hard to comprehend as the national debt.....yet this source lists it as #7 on the list of "thriving industries".  Obviously, they don't take the size of said industry into account in their definition of "thriving"!

Christina

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html