Say a certain manufacturing industry has 63.1 thousand jobs in 2008, but is expected to decline at an average annual rate of 1.7 thousand jobs per year from 2008 to 2018. assuming this holds true, what will be this industry’s percent change from 2008 to 2018?

2008      63.1
2009      63.1 - 1.7
2010      63.1 - 1.7*2
2011      63.1 - 1.7*3

x            63.1 - (x - 2008) *1.7

2018      63.1 - (2018 - 2008) * 1.7

63.1 - (10) * 1.7 = 63.1 - 17 = 46.1

Change from 2008 - 2018 = 63.1 - 46.1 =   17

% of change = change * 100 / initial value = 17*100/67.1 = - 25. 3%.

The negative sign indicates that the change was a decline, instead of an increase.

- 25.3%