Employment by Industry (U.S.): In July 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 146.8 million (M) – an increase of 943,000 (+0.6%) month on month (m/m). When compared to July 2020, total employment is up by 5.2% year on year (y/y).  All employment sectors that we track grew this month, but we saw the greatest gains in the service-providing sector.

The SA service-providing sector gained 899,000 jobs to reach total employment of 126.4M people in July, which is +0.7% m/m, and up 5.6% y/y. Service-providing employment in July accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.4M people in July – up 44,000 m/m (+0.2%), 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. Both manufacturing and construction employment grew this month.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.37M people in July – up 27,000 m/m (+0.2%), and up 2.7% 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 895,000 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, -1,000 change m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.59M workers. Jobs in this sector were down by 2,000 m/m. Therefore, gains in other manufacturing categories are responsible for the net increase in July manufacturing jobs.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.42M – up 0.1% m/m, and up 3.1% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In July there were 1.7M workers constructing buildings, up 0.3% m/m and 6.0% y/y. Heavy civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.04M in June – down 0.2% m/m, but still up 1.4% 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.