Employment by Industry (U.S.): In December 2022, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 153.7 million (M) – an increase of 223,000 (+0.1%) month on month (m/m). When compared to December 2021, total employment is up by 3.0% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in the transportation equipment sector with a growth of 0.9% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 183,000 jobs to reach total employment of 132.4M people in December, which is +0.1% m/m and +3.0% y/y. Service-providing employment in December accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 21.4M people in December – up 40,000 m/m (+0.19%), and up by 3.2% y/y. The service-providing and goods-producing sectors are creating jobs at a similar rate this month.

Figure 1 shows seasonally adjusted manufacturing and construction employment on the same chart from 2005 to present. Construction employment grew at a faster rate than manufacturing employment this month.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.9M people in December – up 8,000 m/m (+0.1%), and up 3.0% 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 1.04M employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, up 7,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.76M workers, up 15,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.77M – up 28,000 m/m, and increasing by 3.1% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In December, there were 1.74M workers constructing buildings, increasing 0.5% m/m and up 3.4% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.08M in December – increasing 0.2% m/m, and up 1.9% 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.