U.S.Labor Department Report Shows Which Industries Have Been Hiring

The Labor Department reported last Friday that non-farm employment increased by 916,000 during the month of March while unemployment rate dropped to 6%. The improvement is being attributed to the continuing coronavirus vaccinations, boosting the confidence of workers to return or land new jobs in numbers that totaled way beyond the 675,000 predicted by Dow Jones.

Job growth is taking place in several industries including in state and local government offices and agencies. Yet the highest number of additional jobs are those in the leisure and hospitality industry.

Nate Rattner of CNBC examined the net employment changes that transpired in every industry during March, based on the Labor Department data currently available. The key takeaways of his analysis on where much of the hiring is taking place revealed the following:

Hospitality and Leisure

While this sector was the hardest hit by the global health crisis, the industry has shown the largest net gain of 280,000 for the month of March. About 176,000 of which have been added to bars, pubs, restaurants and food services. The entertainment, leisure and art sector saw a modest 64,000 in additional jobs.

Still, Rattner noted that the March gains was not up to par with the 384,000 job gains achieved in February of this year. He also mentioned that despite the 2-month increases, the employment rate in this sector is still deficient by 3.1 million if figures are to be compared with the job gains posted in February 2020.

State and Local Government

Government hiring increased by 50,000, while the public education sector in both local and state institutions took back 76,000 staff and faculty members. Even the private education institutions hired as many as 64,000 new employees.

Construction Industry

Construction companies and licensed contractors also gave hiring a boost as the Labor Dept. data showed that between 56,000 and 110,000 were employed in construction-related jobs since springtime. Hiring was extensive as renewed interests in house constructions and improvements increased employment by 18,000, while heavy and civil engineering construction projects took on 27,000 workers and specialty trade contractors.

Other industries that have provided job to many unemployed workers, include the healthcare and social assistance providers, which hired 22,500. The manufacturing industry increased its labor force by 53,000, while a variety of service businesses saw the need to hire 66,000 additional employees

Rattner also reported that according to Robert Frick, the Corporate Economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, data on gains in other job industries are still broadly under repair.