JOBS | November Growth by Industry

Overall, the news is good. But well-paid government jobs at all levels declined
between 2010 and 2014. The fastest-growth private replacement jobs have
been lower-paid jobs in hospitality, retail and administrative/waste services.

The headline news about the November jobs report is that 321,000 new payroll jobs were created, seasonally adjusted, and the unemployment rate was steady.

Also, hourly wages rose 0.4 percent, double the expected rate.

A troublesome aspect of the recovery (see chart at left) is that wages have stagnated because jobs have been growing in lower-paid industry sectors–retail, hospitality (especially food services and drinking places), administrative and waste services.

So an interesting place to look in the monthly BLS job numbers is the industry-sector breakdown.

This information is in Summary Table B, which is provided below in slightly simplified format with comments attached to each sector. Interesting sectors in November were nondurable goods manufacturing, retail trade, information services (includes a lot of tech companies), financial activities (heavily concentrated in NYC), professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality and other services.

Sen. Randal ("Rand") Paul will be pleased that growth in government jobs is slow, but the loss in government jobs has been a drag on the economy, especially since government workers are paid above-average wages.

ESTABLISHMENT DATA Summary Table B.  EMPLOYMENT BY SELECTED INDUSTRY
(Over-the-month change, in thousands, seasonally adjusted)
Category	Nov. 2013	Sept. 2014	Oct. 2014(p)	Nov. 2014(p)	Comment, Nov. 2014
TOTAL NONFARM (Private+Govt)	274	271	243	321	Above expected
TOTAL PRIVATE (Goods+Services)	272	249	236	314
Goods-producing	68	36	28	48	Pickup from October
Mining and logging	1	6	1	0
Construction	32	18	7	20	Healthy growth
Manufacturing	35	12	20	28	Picking up?
Of which: Durable goods(1)	19	11	18	17	Steady
[Of which: Motor vehicles, parts]	4.7	1.7	2.0	3.0	Recovery?
Of which: Nondurable goods	16	1	2	11	Interesting
Private service-providing(1)	204	213	208	266	Very positive
Wholesale trade	16.8	2.9	6.1	2.5	Reduced growth
Retail trade	22.3	39.9	34.2	50.2	Great, but is some growth at expense of December?
Transportation and warehousing	32.4	7.0	15.3	16.7	Continuing growth
Information	1	3	-5	4	Turnaround
Financial activities	-4	14	6	20	Good news for NYC
Professional, business services(1)	73	66	52	86	Big jump
Of which: Temp services	36.6	23.2	19.5	22.7	Continuing growth
Education and health services(1)	25	35	37	38	Mostly health care
Of which: Health, social care	24.4	24.8	31.5	37.2	Obamacare?
Leisure and hospitality	37	47	55	32	Fast growth, slowing down?
Other services	-1	0	7	15	Interesting
TOTAL GOVERNMENT	2	22	7	7	Constrained growth