Employment by Industry (U.S.): In February 2022, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 150.4 million (M) – an increase of 678,000 (+0.5%) month on month (m/m). When compared to February 2021, total employment is up by 4.6% 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 1.9% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 573,000 jobs to reach total employment of 129.58M people in February, which is +0.4% m/m and +4.8% y/y. Service-providing employment in February accounted for 86.2% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.82M people in February – up 105,000 m/m (+0.5%), and up by 3.7% y/y. The goods-producing sector is creating jobs at a faster rate than the service-providing 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 12.6M people in February – up 36,000 m/m (+0.3%), and up 3.2% 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 963,100 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, down 18,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.64M workers, down 21,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.6M – increasing 0.8% m/m, and increasing by 4.2% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In February, there were 1.69M workers constructing buildings, up 0.5% m/m and 3.8% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.06M in February – up 0.7% m/m, and up 4.5% 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.