Employment by Industry (U.S.): In February 2024, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 157.8 million (M) – an increase of 275,000 (+0.2%) month on month (m/m). When compared to February 2023, total employment is up by 1.8% 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 1.1% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 256,000 jobs to reach total employment of 136M people in February, which is +0.2% m/m and +1.9% y/y.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 21.8M people in February – up 19,000 m/m (+0.09%), and up by 1.1% 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 2013 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 (remaining flat m/m), and up 0.2% 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 1.07M employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, remaining flat m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.83M workers, down 2,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 8.2M – up 23,000 m/m, and increasing by 0.7% 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 2.7% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.15M in February – increasing 1.1% m/m, and up 3.7% 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.