Long View of Job Growth by Industry. And the “Multiple Jobholders” Question

June 5, 2023

To shed some additional light on the jobs report.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

In the comments about the jobs report we discussed on Friday – “Landing Got Cancelled: Job Market Still at Cruising Altitude with Some Bumps” – lots of questions came up about what types of jobs had been created, whether these jobs were mostly low-paid jobs in the Leisure & Hospitality sector or wherever, and whether “multiple jobholders” inflated those strong jobs numbers. So today, we’ll get into the jobs by industry. As we’ll see in a moment, jobs in retail, and Leisure & Hospitality, and State & Local Government (mostly educators) are still below where they’d been before the pandemic.

But first to the multiple jobholders. Their number fell in May by 323,000 from April. So that didn’t inflate the job numbers; on the contrary. During the pandemic, the number of multiple jobholders had plunged, but since mid-2020, it recovered and is now back to pre-pandemic levels. Compared to May 2019, the number of multiple jobholders is down by 139,000.

But the more important metric here, given that the number of overall employees has grown, is the number of multiple jobholders as a percent of total employment. It dipped in May to 4.8%, which, except for the plunge during the pandemic, is at the low end of the historical range. It had peaked in 1996 at 6.5%:

Jobs growth by major industry classification.

Professional and business services include Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Administrative and Support, and Waste Management and Remediation Services. Some of the tech and social media companies are included, others are in “Information” or in other categories. This is the largest sector in the US by employment and includes many highly paid jobs.

Total employment: 23.05 million
May growth: +64,000
Three-month growth: +174,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +1.61 million

“Information” is a small sector that includes web search portals, data processing, data transmission, information services, software publishing, motion picture and sound recording, broadcasting including over the Internet, and telecommunications. Some of the tech and social media companies with big layoff announcements are included here.

In this sector, the heat has started to fade, after a huge hiring binge in 2021 through late 2022. The number of jobs peaked late last year, then tapered off earlier this year and has now flattened out just under 3.1 million jobs, as companies are rebalancing their work force to trim off the excess in some corners and hire in others.

Total employment: 3.08 million
May growth: -9,000
Three-month growth: -5,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +176,000

Healthcare and social assistance:

Total employment: 21.3 million
May growth: +74,600
Three-month growth: +200,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +523,000

State & local government – mostly education: still struggling with teacher shortages, employment still below February 2020 levels, with 870,000 job openings, up by 52% from the same period in 2019.

Total employment: 19.7 million
May growth: +49,000
Three-month growth: +134,000
Growth since Feb 2020: -272,000

Leisure and hospitality – restaurants, lodging, etc. – is marked by often tough working conditions with odd hours and weekend work, at a relatively low pay, and so the sector has had trouble competing for employees, and it still has 1.42 million job openings. And the level of employment still hasn’t caught up with pre-pandemic times.

Total employment: 16.6 million
May growth: +48,000
Three-month growth: +124,000
Growth since Feb 2020: -349,000

Retail trade includes workers at brick-and-mortar retail stores and other retail locations. It does not include the tech-related jobs of ecommerce operations, and it does not include drivers and warehouse employees, who are in their own respective categories. This sector has come under heavy pressure from ecommerce operations:

Total employment: 15.6 million
May growth: +11,600
Three-month growth: +3,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +31,000

Manufacturing: job growth has leveled off, after a massive hiring binge and the highest employment since the middle of the Great Recession, when manufacturing was gutted.

Total employment: 13.0 million
May growth: -2,000
Three-month growth: -4,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +199,000

Construction – all types of construction, from powerplants to single-family housing:

Total employment: 7.9 million
May growth: +25,000
Three-month growth: +29,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +304,000

Finance & Insurance:

Total employment: 6.7 million
May growth: +7,100
Three-month growth: +29,000
Growth since Feb 2020: +206,000

Transportation and Warehousing:

Total employment: 6.76 million
May growth: +24,200
Three month growth: +44,000
Growth since Feb 2020: + 977,000

Wholesale Trade:

Total employment: 6.05 million
May growth: +1,100
Three month growth: +7,000
Growth since Feb 2020: + 159,000

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, a relatively small sector that includes spectator sports, performing arts, amusement, gambling, recreation, museums, historical sites, and similar. This sector, part of which had been shut down during the pandemic, is now seeing huge demand as Americans are splurging on “experiences,” and the sector’s job openings have exploded to 233,000 openings, up by 111% from the same period in 2019. Employment is still not back where it had been before the pandemic:

Total employment: 2.45 million
May growth: +13,700
Three-month growth: +37,000
Growth since Feb 2020: -42,000