Employment by Industry (U.S.)

Employment by Industry (U.S.): In December 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 148.95 million (M) – an increase of 199,000 (+0.1%) month on month (m/m). When compared to December 2020, total employment is up by 4.5% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in construction, similar to November data.

The SA service-providing sector gained 145,000 jobs to reach total employment of 128.2M people in December, which is +0.1% m/m and +4.8% y/y. Service-providing employment in December accounted for 86.0% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.8M people in December – up 54,000 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.

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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 12.58M people in December – up 26,000 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 934,100 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, +4,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.64M workers, +4,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.56M – increasing 0.3% m/m, and by 2.2% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In December there were 1.72M workers constructing buildings, up 0.3% m/m and 3.6% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.08M in December – up 1.0% 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.

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