Federal govt. and health services sector the exceptions to U.S. job-cuts saga

From August 2008 to August 2010, the U.S. civilian workforce shrunk by 6.4 million, or 4.7 percent.  While almost every single sector of the economy employed less workers in August than two years ago, two notable exceptions are the Federal government and the education & health services sector.*

 

The federal government employed 153,000, or 5.5 percent, more workers in August 2010 than it did two years ago. (During the 2010 Census recording period, Federal hiring was actually even higher, peaking in May). 

Contrastingly, the state governments employed 43,000, or 0.83 percent fewer workers, while local governments shed 239,000, or 1.64 percent of their workforce.  Overall government employment -- that is, federal, state, and local combined --  declined by 129,000, or 0.57 percent.  

Despite the increase in fed jobs, federal employment as a percentage of overall government hiring increased by less than 1 percentage point from two years ago. As of August 2010, the feds accounted for 13 percent of total government employment; states accounted for 23 percent, and local governments accounted for the remaining 64 percent. All layers of the U.S. government currently employs 22.4 million workers, which represents about 17 percent of the civilian workforce.

Meanwhile, the private sector has eliminated about 6.3 million jobs, or 5.5 percent, in the past two years. Construction, a sector hit particularly hard by the recession, saw its workforce plunge by 21.1 percent over the past two years; while another hard-hit segment, financial services, lost 6.9 percent of its workers during the downturn. 

Other important sectors like professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, retailer, and information also cut jobs. The utilities and logging & mining sectors fared better -- being flat or down just slightly -- but they do not represent a large percentage of the U.S. labor force anyway. 

Although manufacturing is one of the few bright spots of the U.S. economy, it actually cut 1.7 million workers, or 12.6 percent of its workforce, since two years ago. However, employment for this sector bottomed at the end of 2009 and has steadily risen since then.

Interestingly, there is one quasi-private sector that is booming and hiring a greater number of workers than the Federal government.  The education & health services sector (defined as a single entity by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) employed 676,000, or 3.6 percent more workers than it did two years ago. In fact, for the past two years, this sector has never posted a single month-to-month decrease in employment. 

Education & health services currently employs over 19 million workers in the U.S., which represents about 18 percent of total private workforce.

Read more »

Posted in: ibtimes

Federal govt. and health services sector the exceptions to U.S. job-cuts saga

From August 2008 to August 2010, the U.S. civilian workforce shrunk by 6.4 million, or 4.7 percent.  While almost every single sector of the economy employed less workers in August than two years ago, two notable exceptions are the Federal government and the education & health services sector.*

 

The federal government employed 153,000, or 5.5 percent, more workers in August 2010 than it did two years ago. (During the 2010 Census recording period, Federal hiring was actually even higher, peaking in May). 

Contrastingly, the state governments employed 43,000, or 0.83 percent fewer workers, while local governments shed 239,000, or 1.64 percent of their workforce.  Overall government employment -- that is, federal, state, and local combined --  declined by 129,000, or 0.57 percent.  

Despite the increase in fed jobs, federal employment as a percentage of overall government hiring increased by less than 1 percentage point from two years ago. As of August 2010, the feds accounted for 13 percent of total government employment; states accounted for 23 percent, and local governments accounted for the remaining 64 percent. All layers of the U.S. government currently employs 22.4 million workers, which represents about 17 percent of the civilian workforce.

Meanwhile, the private sector has eliminated about 6.3 million jobs, or 5.5 percent, in the past two years. Construction, a sector hit particularly hard by the recession, saw its workforce plunge by 21.1 percent over the past two years; while another hard-hit segment, financial services, lost 6.9 percent of its workers during the downturn. 

Other important sectors like professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, retailer, and information also cut jobs. The utilities and logging & mining sectors fared better -- being flat or down just slightly -- but they do not represent a large percentage of the U.S. labor force anyway. 

Although manufacturing is one of the few bright spots of the U.S. economy, it actually cut 1.7 million workers, or 12.6 percent of its workforce, since two years ago. However, employment for this sector bottomed at the end of 2009 and has steadily risen since then.

Interestingly, there is one quasi-private sector that is booming and hiring a greater number of workers than the Federal government.  The education & health services sector (defined as a single entity by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) employed 676,000, or 3.6 percent more workers than it did two years ago. In fact, for the past two years, this sector has never posted a single month-to-month decrease in employment. 

Education & health services currently employs over 19 million workers in the U.S., which represents about 18 percent of total private workforce.

Read more »

Posted in: ibtimes