An interactive visualization of national employment data, updated through November 2020.
Data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the United States Department of Labor, shows the national employment situation improving, but at a diminishing rate in recent months. BLS summarized the situation:
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 245,000 in November, and the unemployment rate edged down to 6.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. However, the pace of improvement in the labor market has moderated in recent months. In November, notable job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, professional and business services, and health care. Employment declined in government and retail trade.
The decline in government employment is mostly due to the winding down of the decennial census: “A decline of 86,000 in federal government employment reflected the loss of 93,000 temporary workers who had been hired for the 2020 Census.”
An excerpt from my interactive visualization shows the rate of employment change from the previous month declining.
To learn more about the data and access the visualization, click here. The archived version of the release for this month from BLS is here.
