Good news in this morning’s employment data from BLS: employment increased by 916,000 in March (much higher than expected) and the unemployment rate dropped to 6%. As the BLS notes, the improvements reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the pandemic – especially in industries with direct public contact. Employment in Accommodation & Food Services was up by 215,900 (1.8%) and Arts, Entertainment & Recreation employment was up 64,400 (3.7%). Importantly, in the tangible producing industries, Construction and Mining was up 130,000 (1.6%), Manufacturing was up 53,000 (0.4%), and Trade, Transportation & Utilities was up 94,000 (0.3%). For the intangible producing industries, employment in Professional & Business Services was up 60,500 (0.3%), Education & Health Services was up 102,100 (0.5%), and Government was up 136,400 (0.7%).
As a result, the employment split between tangible-producing and intangible-producing industries remained the same.
For more on the categories, see my explanation of the methodology in an earlier posting https://intangibleeconomy.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/which-jobs-got-hit-in-the-covid-crash-tangible-versus-intangible/
