Employment by Industry (U.S.): In June 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 145.8 million (M) – an increase of 850,000 (+0.6%) month on month (m/m). When compared to June 2020, total employment is up by 5.7% year on year (y/y).  We saw the greatest employment gains in the service-providing sector this month.

The SA service-providing sector gained 830,000 jobs to reach total employment of 125.4M people in June, which is +0.7% m/m, and up 6.2% y/y. Service-providing employment in June accounted for 86.0% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.4M people in June – up 20,000 m/m (+0.1%), and up by 3.0% y/y. The goods-producing sector is creating jobs at a slower rate than the service-providing sector.

Figure 1 shows seasonally adjusted manufacturing and construction employment on the same chart from 2005 to present. Manufacturing employment grew this month while construction employment fell.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.32M people in June – up 15,000 m/m (+0.1%), and up 2.7% y/y. The two largest employment categories within manufacturing are 1) motor vehicles & parts, and 2) transportation equipment. This month, there were 872,900 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, -12,000 change m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.57M workers. Jobs in this sector were down by 6,000 m/m. Therefore, gains in other manufacturing categories are responsible for the net increase in June manufacturing jobs.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.41M – down 0.1% m/m, but still up 3.3% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In June there were 1.69M workers constructing buildings, up 0.3% m/m and 6.1% y/y. Heavy civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.05M in June – down 1.0% m/m, but still up 1.8% 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.