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Employment in December 2012

January 07, 2013

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 155,000 in December. Employment increased in health care, food services and drinking places, construction, and manufacturing.

Over-the-month change in nonfarm payroll employment, seasonally adjusted, January 2011–December 2012
MonthEmployment change

Jan 2011

110,000

Feb 2011

220,000

Mar 2011

246,000

Apr 2011

251,000

May 2011

54,000

Jun 2011

84,000

Jul 2011

96,000

Aug 2011

85,000

Sep 2011

202,000

Oct 2011

112,000

Nov 2011

157,000

Dec 2011

223,000

Jan 2012

275,000

Feb 2012

259,000

Mar 2012

143,000

Apr 2012

68,000

May 2012

87,000

Jun 2012

45,000

Jul 2012

181,000

Aug 2012

192,000

Sep 2012

132,000

Oct 2012

137,000

Nov 2012

(p)161,000

Dec 2012

(p)155,000

Footnotes:
(p) = preliminary
 

 

In 2012, employment growth averaged 153,000 per month, the same as the average monthly gain for 2011.

Over-the-month change in nonfarm payroll employment, selected industries, seasonally adjusted, December 2012
IndustryEmployment change(p)

Health care

44,500

Construction

30,000

Manufacturing

25,000

Professional and business services

19,000

Educational services

10,300

Financial activities

9,000

State government

4,000

Federal government

-3,000

Information

-9,000

Retail trade

-11,300

Footnotes:
(p) = preliminary
 

Health care employment continued to expand in December (+45,000). In 2012, health care employment rose by 338,000.

Construction added 30,000 jobs in December, led by employment increases in construction of buildings (+13,000) and in residential specialty trade contractors (+12,000).

In December, manufacturing employment rose by 25,000, with small gains in a number of component industries. In 2012, factory employment increased by 180,000; most of the growth occurred during the first quarter.

Employment in retail trade changed little in December (-11,300), after increasing by 143,000 over the prior 3 months. Within the industry, employment in clothing and accessories stores fell by 19,000, following gains that totaled 55,000 over the prior 3 months. Elsewhere in retail trade, employment in automobile dealers and in food and beverage stores continued to trend up in December.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Employment data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — December 2012," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL-13-0001. More charts featuring employment data can be found in Current Employment Statistics Highlights: December 2012 (PDF).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employment in December 2012 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130107.htm (visited March 29, 2024).

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