Employment by Industry (U.S.): In January 2023, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 155.1 million (M) – an increase of 517,000 (+0.3%) month on month (m/m). When compared to January 2022, total employment is up by 3.3% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in the oil and gas extraction sector with a growth of 0.9% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 471,000 jobs to reach total employment of 133.6M people in January, which is +0.4% m/m and +3.3% y/y. Service-providing employment in January accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 21.5M people in January – up 46,000 m/m (+0.21%), and up by 3.5% y/y. The service-providing sector is creating jobs at a faster rate than the goods-producing sector 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 13.0M people in January – up 19,000 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, down 7,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.77M workers, down 8,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.88M – up 25,000 m/m, and increasing by 3.9% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In January, there were 1.79M workers constructing buildings, increasing 0.2% m/m and up 4.1% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.08M in January – decreasing 0.1% m/m, and up 3.3% 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.