November 2011, Vol. 134, No. 11
Labor month in review
The November Review
Extended mass layoffs
Note on the 2010–2020 employment projections
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Labor month in review from past issues
In this issue of the Review, penultimate issue for 2011, we present a pair of articles on the topic of labor force diversity, and a visual essay on employment and wages of workers in the construction-related industries and occupations.
In 2003, the Current Population Survey (CPS) expanded its questionnaire to include questions specifically about Asians. Survey respondents were asked to choose, if applicable, one of six Asian categories—Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese—or to volunteer the name of another Asian group. In this month's lead article, Mary Dorinda Allard, Division Chief in the Bureau's Division of Labor Force Statistics, presents the results of the expanded CPS and analyzes a number of demographic and labor force characteristics for each of the various Asian groups. The analysis includes information about how the groups fared in the labor market from 2003 through 2010. The article marks the first time that the Bureau has published CPS data on specific Asian groups.
Next up in this issue of the Review is a visual essay on employment and wages of workers in constructionrelated industries and occupations. Ben Cover, an economist in the Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics, uses data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey to show, not surprisingly, that employment in construction occupations declined from 2006 to 2010. In fact, employment during this period fell in 40 of the 46 construction occupations examined. Employment declines generally were more severe among the lower paid construction helper occupations. With regard to wages, the author finds that average hourly wages for workers in construction occupations increased 2.7 percent per year from 2006 to 2010, less than the 3.2-percent growth in hourly wages for all occupations.
Finally this month, Bliss Cartwright, Patrick Ronald Edwards, and Qi Wang, all of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), present an examination of gender segregation by jobs and industry in the United States. The article uses data from the EEOC's 2008 EEO–1 National Survey of Private Employers to explore the effects of industries and job groups on gender differences. More specifically, the authors attempt to answer the questions "Which segments of the labor force contribute the most to gender segregation in the United States?" and "Is gender segregation most likely in goods-producing industries or service-providing industries, and in which sectors does it occur?"
Employers in the private nonfarm sector initiated 1,226 mass layoff events in the third quarter of 2011, resulting in the separation of 184,493 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days. Total extended mass layoff events decreased over the year, from 1,370 to 1,226, and associated worker separations fell from 222,357 to 184,493.
Over the year ending in the third quarter of 2011, the number of extended mass layoff events declined in 13 of the 18 major private nonfarm industry sectors. The transportation and warehousing and the accommodation and food services sectors experienced the largest declines in the numbers of worker separations over the year. In the manufacturing subsectors, 8 of the 21 experienced over-the-year decreases in the number of layoff events.
The 2010–2020 employment projections-related articles will appear in the January issue of the Review. To correspond with the release of the projections data, the January Review will be posted online at www.bls.gov/mlr on February 1, 2012. Additional information can be obtained from the Employment Projections Program at www.bls.gov/emp.
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