Employment by Industry (U.S.): In March 2022, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 150.9 million (M) – an increase of 431,000 (+0.3%) month on month (m/m). When compared to March 2021, total employment is up by 4.5% year on year (y/y). Among the employment sectors that we track at Gerdau, we saw the greatest monthly gain in the leisure and hospitality sector with a growth of 0.7% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 371,000 jobs to reach total employment of 130M people in March, which is +0.3% m/m and +4.7% y/y. Service-providing employment in March accounted for 86.2% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 20.9M people in March – up 60,000 m/m (+0.3%), and up by 3.3% 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. Manufacturing employment grew at a faster rate than construction employment this month.

The SA manufacturing sector employed 12.7M people in March – up 38,000 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 975,300 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, up 6,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.66M workers, up 11,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.63M – increasing 0.2% m/m, and increasing by 3.0% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In March, there were 1.69M workers constructing buildings, remaining flat m/m and up 3.2% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.07M in March – up 0.5% m/m, and up 2.6% 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.