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May 6, 2005
April employment
April's employment numbers came out this morning. BLS reported the unemployment rate stayed at 5.2%, but non-farm payroll employment increased by 274,000.
Here is the breakdown by occupation (note - these are not seasonally adjusted, so both monthly change and the change from the same month last year are given as the monthly change may be seasonally related):
Management, business, and financial operations occupations:
continues to have a below average unemployment rate (2.2%); down from March and down from April 2004. Employment up (48,000) from last month and up (188,00) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) up by 8,000 from last month and up 85,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Professional and related occupations:
below average unemployment rate (2.2%); same as in March but down significantly from April 2004. Employment up significantly (328,000) from last month and up significantly (277,00) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) up significantly by 328,000 from last month and up 181,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Service occupations:
above average unemployment rate (6.3%); down from March but same as in April 2004. Employment up (32,000) from last month and up (127,00) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) down by 130,000 from last month but up 133,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Sales and related occupations:
average unemployment rate (5%); up slightly from March and up slightly from April 2004. Employment up significantly (341,000) from last month and up an incredible 914,000 from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) up significantly by 403,000 from last month and up 999,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Office and administrative support occupations:
average unemployment rate (4.6%); down from March and down from April 2004. Employment up (117,000) from last month but down by 94,000 from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) up by 5,000 from last month but down 214,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations:
above average unemployment rate (8.8 %); down significantly from March and down significantly from April 2004. Employment up (54,000) from last month but down by 42,000) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) up by 5,000 from last month but down by 66,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Construction and extraction occupations:
above average unemployment rate (7.1%); down significantly from March and down from April 2004. Employment up (237,000) from last month and up significantly by 757,000) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) down by 56,000 from last month and but up significantly by 595,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations:
slightly below average unemployment rate (4.3 %); same as in March but up slightly from April 2004. Employment down by 57,000 from last month but up by 238,000) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) down by 62,000 from last month and up 258,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Production occupations:
above average unemployment rate (6.2 %); down significantly from March and down from April 2004. Employment up (81,000) from last month and up (58,000) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) down by 37,000 from last month and down by 22,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Transportation and material moving occupations:
above average unemployment rate (6.2 %); down from March and down from April 2004. Employment down by 3,000 from last month and up (91,000) from same month last year (April 2004); total number of people in this occupation (working or looking for a job) down by 37,000 from last month and down by 27,000 from same month last year (April 2004).
Bottom line: Managers and professions continue to have the lowest unemployment rates and construction and farm workers the highest. Healthy growth generally across the board, with very large growth (from same month last year) in sales and construction jobs (pink and blue collar). However, there was non-insignificant drop in office worker positions.
Managerial, professional, office and installation/repair occupations (what we might consider the upper, middle and blue-collar "information" economy positions) increased over 600,000 from April 2004 to April 2005. But declined slightly as a percentage of the total work force.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 6, 2005 1:19 PM
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