Employment by Industry (U.S.): In October 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 148.32 million (M) – an increase of 531,000 (+0.4%) month on month (m/m). When compared to October 2020, total employment is up by 4.1% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in construction.

The SA service-providing sector gained 423,000 jobs to reach total employment of 127.6M people in October, which is +0.3% m/m, and +4.2% y/y. Service-providing employment in October accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.68M people in October – up 108,000 m/m (+0.5%), and up by 3.0% 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 at a faster rate than manufacturing employment this month.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.53M people in October – up 60,000 m/m (+0.5%), and up 3.1% 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 939,500 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, +28,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.64M workers, +24,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.5M – increasing 0.6% m/m, and by 2.3% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In October there were 1.7M workers constructing buildings, up 0.2% m/m, and 3.5% y/y. Heavy civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.05M in October – up 1.2% m/m, and up 2.3% 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.