The Long View of Job Growth by Industry: Some Gained Jobs; at Others, Jobs Got Crushed

To shed some additional light on the jobs report.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Earlier today, we looked at the overall job market: Landing Still Cancelled: Labor Market Cruises through Updrafts and Air Pockets. Now we’ll look at it by industry classification over the longer term, because there are huge variations, with some industries shedding lots of jobs, and other piling them on, and others again just hanging on to whoever they already have.

Professional and business services, the largest industry sector by employment with many highly-paid jobs; it includes Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Administrative and Support, and Waste Management and Remediation Services. Some of the tech companies are included, others are in “Information” or in other categories.

• Total employment: 23.1 million
• June, month-to-month: +21,000
• Three-month: +154,000
• Six-month: +240,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: +1.62 million

“Information” is a small sector that includes web search portals, data processing, data transmission, information services, software publishing, motion picture and sound recording, broadcasting including over the Internet, and telecommunications.

Some of the tech and social media companies with big layoff announcements are in this industry classification.

This industry saw a huge hiring boom in 2021 through late 2022 that then suddenly turned south, with employment dropping for a couple of months. But so far this year, employment has stabilized, with some companies shedding jobs and other companies adding jobs.

• Total employment: 3.1 million
• June, month-to-month: 0
• Three-month: +3,000
• Six-month: -25,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: +187,000

Healthcare and social assistance: second largest sector in terms of employment.

• Total employment: 21.4 million
• June, month-to-month: +65,200
• Three-month: +197,000
• Six-month: +385,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: +577,000

State & local government – includes education, where institutions in many locations are still struggling with teacher shortages; employment is still below February 2020 levels, with a record 959,000 job openings in May, up by 69% from the same period in 2019.

• Total employment: 19.8 million
• June, month-to-month: +59,000
• Three-month: +137,000
• Six-month: +339,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: -220,000

Leisure and hospitality – restaurants, lodging, etc. – has had trouble competing for employees. The industry still has 1.35 million job openings, and and the level of employment still hasn’t caught up with the levels before the pandemic.

• Total employment: 16.6 million
• June, month-to-month: +21,000
• Three-month: +58,000
• Six-month: +260,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: -369,000

Retail trade includes workers at brick-and-mortar retail stores and other retail locations. It does not include the office employees at ecommerce operations, drivers, fulfillment center employees, etc. The mall-portion of this sector has come under heavy pressure from ecommerce operations.

• Total employment: 15.5 million
• June, month-to-month: -11,200
• Three-month: +10,000
• Six-month: +61,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: +19,000

Manufacturing: After strong bounce off the pandemic lows, job growth has leveled off at a higher level than in 2019.

• Total employment: 13.0 million
• June, month-to-month: +7,000
• Three-month: +13,000
• Six-month: +15,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: +204,000

Construction – all types of construction, from single-family housing to highways:

• Total employment: 7.9 million
• June, month-to-month: +23,000
• Three-month: +57,000
• Six-month: +88,000
• Growth since Feb 2020: +323,000

Finance & Insurance:

• Total employment: 6.7 million
• June, month-to-month: +6,700
• Three-month: +36,400
• Six-month: +30,300
• Growth since Feb 2020: +218,000

Transportation and Warehousing:

• Total employment: 6.73 million
• June, month-to-month: -6,900
• Three-month: -5,100
• Six-month: +25,100
• Growth since Feb 2020: +944,000

Wholesale Trade:

• Total employment: 6.05 million
• June, month-to-month: -3,600
• Three-month: -900
• Six-month: +18,200
• Growth since Feb 2020: +154,000

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, a small sector that includes employees at facilities for spectator sports, performing arts, amusement, gambling, recreation, museums, historical sites, and similar. Many of these venues had been shut down during the pandemic. But now Americans are flocking to them to splurge on “experiences.” After the huge layoffs during the pandemic, hiring has been trying to catch up, but employment is still not back where it had been before the pandemic:

• Total employment: 2.45 million
• June, month-to-month: 15,600
• Three-month: -+26,100
• Six-month: +56,400
• Growth since Feb 2020: -39,000

Enjoy reading WOLF STREET and want to support it? You can donate. I appreciate it immensely. Click on the beer and iced-tea mug to find out how:

Would you like to be notified via email when WOLF STREET publishes a new article? Sign up here.