Where The June Jobs Were: Who Is Hiring And Who Is Firing

After two consecutive record payroll prints, the US added a whopping 7.5 million jobs in the past two months after losing a record 20.7 million jobs in April. So who exactly was hiring, and who was firing?

First, we’ll answer the latter, because in April there was just one category that saw a drop in jobs: mining and logging, which shrank by 10,000 jobs, primarily due to a 7.3K drop in “support activities for mining” which is likely the result of continued contraction in the shale patch.

How about hiring? The short answer, everyone else, and here are the details:

• Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 2.1 million, accounting for about two-fifths of the gain in total nonfarm employment; employment in food services and drinking places – i.e. waiters and bartenders – rose by 1.5 million, following a gain of the same magnitude in May.

• Employment in retail trade rose by 740,000, after a gain of 372,000 in May and losses totaling 2.4 million in March and April combined. Notable job gains occurred in clothing and clothing accessories stores (+202,000), general merchandise stores (+108,000), furniture and home furnishings stores (+84,000), and motor vehicle and parts dealers (+84,000).

• Education and health services employment increased by 568,000. Health care employment increased by 358,000 over the month, with gains in offices of dentists (+190,000), offices of physicians (+80,000), and offices of other health practitioners (+48,000). Elsewhere in health care, job losses continued in nursing care facilities (-18,000). Employment also increased in the social assistance industry (+117,000), reflecting gains in child day care services (+80,000) and in individual and family services (+28,000). Employment in private education rose by 93,000 over the month.

• Employment in “other services” industry in June (+357,000), with three-fourths of the increase occurring in personal and laundry services (+264,000).

• Manufacturing employment rose by 356,000. June employment increases were concentrated in the durable goods component, with motor vehicles and parts (+196,000) accounting for over half of the job gain in manufacturing. Employment also increased over the month in miscellaneous durable goods manufacturing (+26,000) and machinery (+18,000). Within the nondurable goods component, the largest job gain occurred in plastics and rubber products (+22,000).

• Professional and business services added 306,000 jobs in June; employment rose in temporary help services (+149,000), services to buildings and dwellings (+53,000), and accounting and bookkeeping services (+18,000). By contrast, employment declined in computer systems design and related services (-20,000).

• Construction employment increased by 158,000 in June, following a gain of 453,000 in May. Over-the-month gains occurred in specialty trade contractors (+135,000), with growth about equally split between the residential and nonresidential components. Job gains also occurred in construction of buildings (+32,000).

• Transportation and warehousing added 99,000 jobs, following declines in the prior 2 months (-588,000 in April and May combined). In June, employment rose in warehousing and storage (+61,000), couriers and messengers (+21,000), truck transportation (+8,000), and support activities for transportation (+7,000).

• Wholesale trade employment rose by 68,000. In June, job gains occurred in the durable goods (+39,000) and nondurable goods (+27,000) components.  

• Financial activities added 32,000 jobs in June, with over half of the gain in real estate (+18,000).

• Government employment changed little in June (+33,000), as job gains in local government education (+70,000) were partially offset by job losses in state government (-25,000). Government employment is 1.5 million below its February level.

• Mining continued to lose jobs in June (-10,000), and as noted above, most of the decline occurring in support activities for mining (-7,000). Mining employment is down by 123,000 since a recent peak in January 2019, although nearly three-fourths of the decline has occurred since February 2020.

And visually:

Next, we look at the industries with the highest and lowest rates of employment growth for the most recent month, courtesy of Bloomberg. Not surprisingly, the one category that saw the biggest increase was “amusement, gambling and recreation services.“

One bonus chart courtesy of Bloomberg maps the total number of service providing jobs vs the average hourly wage. Paradoxically, hourly wages have continued to go up even as more than 10 million service-providing jobs have been lost.