Employment by Industry (U.S.): In August 2021, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 147.19 million (M) – an increase of 235,000 (+0.2%) month on month (m/m). When compared to August 2020, total employment is up by 4.3% year on year (y/y).  Among the employment sectors that we track here at Gerdau, we saw the greatest gains in the manufacturing sector this month.  

The SA service-providing sector gained 195,000 jobs to reach total employment of 126.7M people in August, which is +0.2% m/m, and +4.5% y/y. Service-providing employment in August accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.  

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.5M people in August – up 40,000 m/m (+0.2%), and up by 3.0% y/y. The goods-producing sector is creating jobs this month at a comparable rate to the service-providing sector. 

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

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.42M people in August – up 37,000 m/m (+0.3%), and up 2.9% 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 923,300 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, +24,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.62M workers. Jobs in this sector were up by 26,000 m/m.  

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.42M – remaining relatively flat m/m, but up by 2.7% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In August there were 1.7M workers constructing buildings, down 0.2% m/m, but still up 4.6% y/y. Heavy civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.03M in August – down 0.8% m/m, but still up 1.2% 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.