Employment changes by industry in January 2011

Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in January (+36,000). Manufacturing and retail trade added jobs over the month, while employment declined in construction and in transportation and warehousing.

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In January, manufacturing added 49,000 jobs. Over the month, job gains occurred in durable goods, including motor vehicles and parts (+20,000), fabricated metal products (+13,000), machinery (+10,000), and computer and electronic products (+5,000).

Employment in retail trade rose by 28,000 in January, after changing little in December. Retail trade has added 123,000 jobs since its recent low point in December 2009.

Employment in health care (part of education and health services) continued to trend up over the month (+11,000).

In January, construction employment declined by 32,000. Within construction, there were job losses among nonresidential specialty trade contractors (−22,000) and in construction of buildings (−10,000).

Transportation and warehousing employment fell by 38,000 in January, reflecting a sharp decline among couriers and messengers (−45,000).

Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help services was little changed in January (−11,000).

These employment data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation – January 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-0129.