Employment by Industry (U.S.): In May 2022, the total number of seasonally adjusted (SA), non-farm people employed in the U.S. was 151.7 million (M) – an increase of 390,000 (+0.3%) month on month (m/m). When compared to May 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 heavy and civil engineering construction sector with a growth of 1.1% m/m.

The SA service-providing sector gained 331,000 jobs to reach total employment of 130.6M people in May, which is +0.3% m/m and +4.6% y/y. Service-providing employment in May accounted for 86.1% of the non-farm workforce.

The SA goods-producing sector employed 21.0M people in May – up 59,000 m/m (+0.3%), and up by 4.2% 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 12.8M people in May – up 18,000 m/m (+0.1%), and up 4.1% 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 993,300 employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, down 4,000 m/m. The transportation equipment field employed 1.7M workers, down 8,000 m/m.

The SA construction sector employed a total of 7.67M – up 36,000 m/m, and increasing by 3.8% y/y. Most construction workers are employed constructing buildings. In May, there were 1.71M workers constructing buildings, increasing 0.4% m/m and up 4.6% y/y. Heavy and civil engineering was the next largest construction category, employing 1.08M in May – increasing 1.1% 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.