Employment by Industry (U.S.): In September 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 147.55 million (M) – an increase of 194,000 (+0.1%) month on month (m/m). When compared to September 2020, total employment is up by 4.0% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest gains in the goods-producing and construction sectors, each growing by 0.3% this month.

The SA service-providing sector gained 142,000 jobs to reach total employment of 127.0M people in September, which is +0.1% m/m, and +4.2% y/y. Service-providing employment in September accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.54M people in September – up 52,000 m/m (+0.3%), and up by 2.8% y/y. The goods-producing sector is creating jobs at a faster rate than the service-providing sector this month.

Figure 1 shows seasonally adjusted manufacturing and construction employment on the same chart from 2005 to present. Construction employment grew more than manufacturing employment this month.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.45M people in September – up 26,000 m/m (+0.2%), and up 2.7% y/y. The two employment categories within manufacturing that we pay the most attention to are 1) motor vehicles & parts, and 2) transportation equipment. This month, there were 906,600 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, -6,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.61M workers, -5,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.45M – increasing 0.3% m/m, and by 2.6% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In September there were 1.7M workers constructing buildings, up 0.4% m/m, and 4.3% y/y. Heavy civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.04M in September – up 0.3% m/m, and up 1.8% y/y.

At Gerdau, we keep an eye on national employment data – especially within manufacturing and construction – since this is where most long product steel is used. In addition, we know that growth in net job creation correlates to increased steel consumption.