Employment by Industry (U.S.): In February 2023, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 155.4 million (M) – an increase of 311,000 (+0.7%) month on month (m/m). When compared to February 2022, total employment is up by 2.9% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in the heavy and civil engineering construction sector with a growth of 0.7% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 291,000 jobs to reach total employment of 133.8M people in February, which is +0.2% m/m and +2.9% y/y. Service-providing employment in February accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 21.5M people in February – up 20,000 m/m (+0.09%), and up by 3.0% y/y. The service-providing sector is creating jobs at a faster rate than the goods-producing 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 13.0M people in February – down 4,000 m/m (flat m/m), and up 2.6% 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 1.04M employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, flat m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.78M workers, up 1,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.92M – up 24,000 m/m, and increasing by 3.2% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In February, there were 1.8M workers constructing buildings, increasing 0.2% m/m and up 4.0% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.09M in February – increasing 0.7% m/m, and up 3.0% 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.