Employment by Industry (U.S.): In November 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 148.61 million (M) – an increase of 210,000 (+0.1%) month on month (m/m). When compared to November 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, similar to October data.

The SA service-providing sector gained 150,000 jobs to reach total employment of 127.9M people in November, which is +0.1% m/m and +4.3% y/y. Service-providing employment in November accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.72M people in November – up 60,000 m/m (+0.3%), and up by 2.9% 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 12.55M people in November – up 31,000 m/m (+0.2%), and up 2.9% 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 923,700 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, -10,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.63M workers, -4,000 m/m. Therefore, increases in other manufacturing categories attributed to the net increase in manufacturing jobs overall.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.53M – increasing 0.4% m/m, and by 2.4% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In November there were 1.72M workers constructing buildings, up 0.6% m/m and 3.9% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.06M in November – up 0.8% m/m, and up 2.7% 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.