Although the US economy seems to be slowing slightly according
to recent reports, the March Employment Situation Report
released by the U.S. Department of Labor shows that the labor
market is still in great shape.
Key indicators
- Employment rose by 180,000 to 137.6 million in
March. This increase followed gains of 162,000 in January
and 113,000
in February.
- Total employment rose by about 2.0 million
over the past year.
- The labor force participation rate remained
steady at 66.2 percent.
- The number of unemployed people
was 6.7 million and the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent,
similar to the figure for February.
- The jobless rate has
remained within a narrow range of between 4.4 and 4.6
percent since September 2006.
Industry highlights
Employment in the health care industry continued to increase
in March with a gain of 30,000. This brought the number of
total new jobs for the past year to 348,000, accounting for
about 1/6th of all new jobs over the period. Offices of physicians
and hospitals added 9,000 jobs each, while nursing and residential
care facilities added 7,000. Of the top paying jobs in the
past year, 9 out of 10 were specialists in the medical field.
Construction employment increased by 56,000 in March. This
offset a decline of 61,000 in February which occurred largely
as a result of adverse weather conditions and sluggish housing
markets across the country. Overall, the construction industry
has shown no net growth since employment peaked in September
2006.
Employment in the food services and drinking industry increased
by 19,000 jobs in March bringing total employment gains over
the past year to 335,000.
Within retail trade, employment in general merchandise stores
rose by 36,000 in March and by 81,000 in the first quarter
of 2007. In contrast, employment in building material and
garden supply stores declined by 15,000 having reached its
peak in October 2006.
Manufacturing employment continued its downward trend, losing
16,000 jobs in March following a loss of 14,000 jobs in February.
A decline of 4,000 was experienced in furniture and related
products, 4,000 in computer and electronic products, 2,000
in textile mills and 2,000 in paper and paper products.
The top 10 occupations with the most job openings are retail
salespersons, cashiers, waiters & waitresses, food preparation
and service workers, registered nurses, laborers, office
clerks, post secondary teachers, janitors and cleaners, as
well as customer service representatives.
The US Department of Labor has analyzed industries and projected
the job market to 2014. The top 10 projected fastest growing
occupations are as follows:
| Type |
Employed 2004 |
Employed 2014 |
Percent Change |
Home health aides |
624,000 |
973,700 |
56% |
Network systems and data communications
analysts |
231,300 |
357,500 |
55% |
Medical assistants |
387,100 |
588,600 |
52% |
Physician assistants |
62,000 |
92,700 |
50% |
Computer software engineers |
800,000 |
682,200 |
46% |
Physical therapist assistants |
58,700 |
84,600 |
44% |
Dental hygienists |
157,800 |
226,200 |
43% |
Dental assistants |
267,400 |
381,700 |
43% |
Personal & home
care aides |
701,100 |
988,500 |
41% |
Source: http://www.bls.gov
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