Steel Markets
October 8, 2013
Construction and Manufacturing Employment
Written by Peter Wright
The partial federal government shutdown prevented the Bureau of Labor Statistics from publishing the September data which was scheduled for last Friday. We have therefore decided to take a more in depth look at manufacturing and construction employment through August. The graph below shows the change in total employment for these two sectors since January 2005. In 2010 and 2011, manufacturing employment took off faster than the construction sector; in H2 2012 construction closed the gap. In 2013 through August construction added 87,000 jobs, all of which occurred in Q1, year to date manufacturing has only added 12,000 jobs. The bright spot in manufacturing this year has been motor vehicles and parts which have added 30,000 jobs. In the same time frame employment in the primary metals sector has declined by 5,000.
