Employment by Industry (U.S.): In March 2024, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 158.1 million (M) – an increase of 303,000 (+0.2%) month on month (m/m). When compared to March 2023, total employment is up by 1.9% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in the transportation equipment manufacturing sector with a growth of 0.6% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 261,000 jobs to reach total employment of 136.3M people in March, which is +0.2% m/m and +2.0% y/y.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 21.8M people in March – up 42,000 m/m (+0.19%), and up by 1.4% 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 2014 to present. Construction employment grew at a faster rate than manufacturing employment this month.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 13.0M people in March – 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, increasing 0.6% m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.84M workers, up 11,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 8.2M – up 39,000 m/m, and increasing by 3.4% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In March, there were 1.9M workers constructing buildings, increasing 0.4% m/m and up 3.3% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.15M in March – increasing 0.5% m/m, and up 3.8% 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.