Research
Which Industries are Adding Jobs? January Jobs Report
Andrew Chamberlain
Andrew Chamberlain, Author at Glassdoor US | Jan 31, 2017
This Friday, Americans will get the first update on the 2017 job market from the federal government. Here’s what we’ll be watching for in the January jobs report from the BLS:
Source: BLS “Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey” (JOLTS).
Manufacturing Delivers Few Jobs
It’s worth noting that America’s much-debated manufacturing sector is one of the smallest job producers in the nation right now. Although the U.S. manufacturing sector is massively productive and accounts for 11.8 percent of the nation’s output, there are only about 185,000 job openings for durable goods manufacturing today—the sector that includes most hard-working automobile and machine-building jobs that feature prominently in national political debates. That amounts to just 3 percent of today’s job openings.
The rest of today’s manufacturing job openings are in what’s called “non-durable” manufacturing—jobs like making pre-packaged food, paper products, and running machines in textile mills. These jobs are much less often held up as an ideal in political debates. There are 139,000 open jobs in non-durable manufacturing today, about 3 percent of the total.
Among all American industries, there is one that is adding essentially zero jobs today: the mining and logging industry. Those industries account for about 2.3 percent of the nation’s economic output, but are hiring for just 0.3 percent of jobs. Nationwide, there are only 17,000 job openings in those two industries—fewer job postings than some single large U.S. employers today.
The Wage Growth Picture
Last month’s jobs report showed a big jump in wages, with average hourly earnings up 2.9 percent from one year ago—the fastest pace since June 2009. We expect this trend toward rising pay to continue, thanks to continued low unemployment and near-record numbers of open jobs.
In January, our Glassdoor Local Pay Report showed U.S. median pay for full-time workers rose 3.2 percent from one year ago. Gains were particularly strong among retail jobs like store manager, recruiters and in the health care sector. Read our full analysis of the latest pay growth figures here.
To speak with Dr. Andrew Chamberlain about this month’s jobs report or labor market trends, contact pr [at] glassdoor [dot] com. For the latest economics and labor market updates, subscribe to email alerts here and follow @adchamberlain.
- 172,000 new jobs added to nonfarm payrolls in December.
- Unemployment rate down to 4.6 percent.
- Average hourly wages up 2.7 percent from one year ago.
- Labor force participation rate down to 62.5 percent.
| Industry | Job Openings (November 2016) | Percent of U.S. Total |
| Health care | 1,033,000 | 19% |
| Professional and business services | 984,000 | 18% |
| Retail trade | 653,000 | 12% |
| Accommodation and food services | 643,000 | 12% |
| State and local government | 468,000 | 8% |
| Finance and insurance | 268,000 | 5% |
| Other services | 189,000 | 3% |
| Transportation, warehousing and utilities | 186,000 | 3% |
| Manufacturing: Durable goods | 185,000 | 3% |
| Construction | 184,000 | 3% |
| Wholesale trade | 183,000 | 3% |
| Manufacturing: Nondurable goods | 139,000 | 3% |
| Education | 87,000 | 2% |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | 82,000 | 1% |
| Federal government | 81,000 | 1% |
| Information (media) | 76,000 | 1% |
| Real estate, rental and leasing | 64,000 | 1% |
| Mining and logging | 17,000 | 0% |
| Total | 5,522,000 |
Andrew Chamberlain
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