Job gains continue in temporary help services and health care in November

Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in November (+39,000). Job gains continued in temporary help services and in health care, while employment fell in retail trade. Since December 2009, total payroll employment has increased by an average of 86,000 per month.

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Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help services continued to increase in November (+40,000) and has risen by 494,000 since September 2009.

Health care (part of education and health services) continued to add jobs over the month, with a gain of 19,000. Much of the increase occurred in hospitals (+8,000).

Employment in mining (part of mining and logging) continued to trend up over the month. Support activities for mining added 6,000 jobs in November and has added 74,000 jobs since October 2009.

Retail trade (part of trade, transportation, and utilities) employment fell by 28,000 in November. Job losses occurred in department stores (−9,000) and in furniture and home furnishings stores (−5,000).

Employment in manufacturing was little changed over the month (−13,000). Following job growth earlier in 2010, employment has been relatively flat, on net, since May.

Employment in most other major industries changed little in November.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — November 2010" (HTML) (PDF), USDL-10-1662.