The FRED Blog has used the Current Employment Statistics from the Establishment Data Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics before. Past posts cover the ups-and-downs of payroll employment in the information industry and the increasing proportion of women in the workforce.
Today, we use that rich data source to learn more about the reduction in overall payroll employment in March 2020—the first reduction in ten years.
The FRED graph above compares the job losses in the goods-producing industry (mining & lodging; construction; and manufacturing) with the job losses in the service-providing industry (trade, transportation & utilities; information; financial activities; professional and business services; education and health services; leisure and hospitality; and other services).
The bulk of the recent reduction in payroll employment occurred among service-providing activities; during the onset of the 2007-2009 recession, the largest reductions in payroll employment took place among goods-producing activities.
The social distancing to manage the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the routines of millions of people, and their use of services has changed. The FRED graph below shows the change in employment for service-providing industries. These changes are presented in percentages to let us compare sectors of different size.
The loss of employment in leisure and hospitality has been the largest: They represent almost 3% of the employed workers in the industry and 65% of the overall reduction in payroll employment. Restaurants and bars are either exclusively offering take-out or temporarily shutting down, so some decline was expected.
How these graphs were created: From the FRED home page, browse data by category by clicking on the “Release” category. Search for “Employment Situation” and select “Current Employment Statistics (Establishment Data).” Click on “Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail, Not seasonally adjusted.”
For the first graph, select the following series by clicking the box to the left of their names: Goods-producing; and Private service-providing. Click “Add to Graph.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, change the units to “Change” and the format to “Bars,” selecting “Stacking > None.”
For the second graph, select the following series by clicking the box to the left of their names: Trade, transportation, and utilities; Information; Financial activities; Professional and business services; Education and health services; Leisure and hospitality; and Other services. Click “Add to Graph.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, change the units to “Change” and the format to “Bars,” selecting “Stacking > Normal.”
Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.
