This article consists of seven cluster charts of four graphs each, showing monthly employment levels over the past 20-plus years in 28 sub-sectors of the U.S. economy.
In every sub-sector, there were pandemic-related downturns in jobs counts in the Spring of last year. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see where jobs growth is on a long-term upward path, not to be deterred by a temporary setback.
On the flip side, there are industries where jobs prospects are clearly flagging.
The types of jobs covered are based in: resources; manufacturing; logistics and environmental; desk work (i.e., office-based); institutional (schools and hospitals) and real estate; accommodation, hospitality and entertainment; and ‘new wave’ (security services, couriers, pharma and software publishing).
There are text boxes accompanying each cluster which set out the highlights from the four workplaces featured. But there are some further observations to be made.
In the ‘Resources’ cluster, none of the four sub-sectors is showing a trend towards long-term jobs growth. Rather, the opposite appears to be the case.
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Posts Tagged ‘manufacturing’
Exiting the Pandemic, Where the Jobs Are
Tuesday, July 6th, 20219 Mid-February Economic Nuggets
Wednesday, February 19th, 2020Article source: ConstructConnect
There are certainly hints that the coronavirus outbreak could be the ‘Black Swan’ that will bring the decade-long period of U.S. economic expansion to an end. Are the statistics being reported out of China accurate? How virulent is the disease? Can it realistically be contained within limited geographic regions?
Suspensions of airline routes, postponements of travel plans, and overseas cancellations of high-profile sporting events, as well as an underlying shift in peoples’ appetite for dining out, cruising their local mall, or gathering in a public space do not bode well for the next while at least, or until more clarity has been achieved concerning COVID-19’s damaging effects.
Nevertheless, the latest weeks have featured a particularly active generation of private sector and government agency data releases concerning the economy. Some of the best ‘nuggets’ are summarized below.
U.S. October Jobs Growth Not as Underwhelming as First Appears
Tuesday, November 5th, 2019Revisions to Past Data Paint Better Picture
The headline figure on U.S. net jobs creation in October, as recorded in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)’s Employment Situation report, was a rather tepid +128,000. But as has occurred on several other recent occasions, there were significant revisions to past data that brighten the picture considerably.
A month ago, September’s total employment count was reported as 151.722 million. Now, September is being estimated at 151.817 million, or +95,000. Therefore, October’s jobs number of 151.945 million is +223,000 when compared with what was originally reported for the prior period.
Nevertheless, there has been a deceleration in U.S. jobs growth this year. The monthly average increase in employment through the first three quarters of 2018 was +226,000. From January through September of 2019, the monthly average gain has been +167,000, a reduction of one-quarter (-26.0%).
U.S. Put-in-place Construction Spending Hits a Soft Spot
Monday, May 13th, 2019Article source: ConstructConnect
Total U.S. put-in-place construction spending, after increasing steadily (although slowly) for seven years, from 2011 through 2017, has lost upwards momentum over the past year and a bit. The cause of the overall weakness has been a retreating residential sector. Nonresidential has continued to exhibit a decent degree of uplift.
For various type-of-structure categories of construction, the charts in this article showcase three data sets – (1) seasonally adjusted (SA) monthly ‘current’ dollar volume levels (where ‘current’ means not adjusted for inflation); (2) month-to-month percent changes in the dollar volume; and (3) year-over-year percent changes in the dollar volume.
As shown in Graph 1 below, total spending on U.S. construction reached its zenith in May of last year, at $1.324 trillion. Since that peak, it has fallen by 3.2%, to land at $1.282 trillion in the latest month for which data is available, March 2019.
The average of month-to-month percent changes for total U.S. put-in-place construction spending during the past ten years has been +0.4%. In March 2019, the month-over-month figure was in negative territory, at -0.9%.
Over the past 10 years, the average of year-over-year percent changes recorded each month for total put-in-place construction has been +4.2%. In March 2019, the year-over-year change was -0.8%.
The ‘glory days’ for U.S. put-in-place construction have, for the moment at least, receded.
Total put-in-place construction was doing its best between 2012 and early 2017, when the y/y percent change curve was consistently above the 10-year average line, as seen in the lower portion of Graph 1. Recently, U.S. put-in-place construction has fallen off its earlier faster pace.
8 Mid-January Economic Nuggets
Thursday, January 17th, 2019Article source: ConstructConnect
Well this is a fine pickle, I must say. I’m about to try writing a Nuggets report based on the latest statistical releases and many of the U.S. economy’s key data series have not been updated due to the federal government shutdown. Workers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which compiles jobs numbers and inflation rate figures, are still toiling away. But workers with the Census Bureau, which monitors foreign and retail trade, plus housing starts, are off the job.
The number of individuals employed by Washington on a normal workday is a little less than three million. Of that total, and with their paychecks being withheld, 800,000 are now staying at home or working for free. The figure grows considerably larger when sidelined contract workers are included in the tally. To date, this is taking a minor toll on consumer spending, but the impact will become more onerous the longer the stalemate between the President and the House lasts.
Prior to recent developments, the story concerning government employment has been largely snooze-inducing. The three levels of government employment – federal, state and local − account for 22.4 million jobs in total. The shares provided by each level have stayed relatively constant over the past ten years. Almost two-thirds (64.5%) of such workers are at the local level; almost one-quarter (23.0%) at the state level; and the remaining 12.5% at the federal level.
December Jobs Reports: U.S. Ends 2018 with Bang; Canada with Whimper
Tuesday, January 8th, 2019Article source: ConstructConnect
The total number of jobs in the U.S. rose by +312,000 in December, according to the latest Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
There was only one other month in 2018 with a greater surge in jobs creation, February at +324,000.
Optimism over hiring prospects caused the participation rate in December to climb to 63.1% from 62.9% the month previously (i.e., more out-of-work individuals decided to rejoin the labor force). The side effect was that the unemployment rate moved up to 3.9% from 3.7% in November.
The large month-to-month gain in jobs in December understates the overall improvement, since there was also a substantial positive revision to prior data. A month ago, the BLS reported a total jobs level of 149.893 million. It is now saying that November’s figure was really 149.951 million, an increase of +58,000.
Therefore, December’s just-reported level of 150.263 million exceeds November’s first-reported level of 149.893 million by +370,000 jobs.
By industry sector, the largest revisions to November’s jobs statistics came from ‘retail’ (+18,000), ‘government’ (+16,000) and ‘leisure and hospitality’ (+14,000).
