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© Copyright 1994 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning


What's Happening in the Nation

Total Nonfarm +208,000

November 1993

Total Private +194,000


N ovember was the third straight month of moderate employment growth, and the strength was widespread throughout the industry divisions. The goods-producing sector has made most of the difference in the past 2 months, adding a total of 100,000 jobs. Construction’s gains reflect improved new home sales, and much of manufacturing’s growth is in construction-related industries (defense-dependent industries continue to decline). Other notable increases are in finance, trucking, wholesale trade, and real estate. Business and health services continued their strong growth patterns. Hours continued to increase even with strong employment trends. Combined with moderate earnings growth, November was a very good month for payroll employment.
Impact on Other Economic Indicators:
The Personal Income side of GDP should be up significantly, due to gains in employment, hours, and earnings. Our impact on FRB’s Industrial Production Index will be positive due to increases in both manufacturing employment and hours. Our contribution to the Index of Leading Economic Indicators will be +0.07, due to the 0.1 hour increase in the manufacturing workweek. Our data will have a strong positive impact on the Index of Coincident Economic Indicators due to the increase in employment along with the positive influence on personal income and industrial production.
MINING — Mining employment remained essentially flat for the second consecutive month in November, falling by 1,000. The loss was the fifth in six months, and leaves employment 22,000 (3.5%) below year-ago levels. Most of this decline, however, is explained by the 16,500 coal strikers who remained off the job in November. Recent reports also suggest that there is a good likelihood that the strike will be resolved before the December survey week.
COAL MINING — Coal Mining showed little change, increasing by 1,000 in November. Strike activity remained constant, with 16,500 workers continuing on strike. Employment is now 26,000 (2.1%) below its November 1992 level, which implies continued weakness here even allowing for strike-induced losses.
OIL AND GAS EXTRACTION — Oil and Gas Extraction employment continued to stall in November, losing 1,000 jobs. The small loss follows a decline of 2,000 in October. After increasing for six consecutive months through September, employment has started to give back some of these gains in the fourth quarter. Responsible for much of the November drop was Oil and Gas Field Services (SIC 138), which lost 2,000 jobs. While fueling most of Oil and Gas Extraction’s gains from April through September, Field Services is now the cause behind recent declines. Employment in Field Services is still 16,000 (9.9%) above the November 1992 figure.
CONSTRUCTION — Construction employment increased by 27,000 in November, its second consecutive month of gains totaling 60,000, or 1.3 percent. Both General building contractors (SIC 15) and Special trade contractors (SIC 17) were responsible for the November gain, adding 13,000 and 14,000 jobs, respectively. Over the year the industry has added 4.2 percent to employment, the best performance of any industry outside of Services. The 205,000 jobs added since the September 1992 trough has enabled the Construction industry to reach its highest level since July 1991. While the November gain does signify continuing growth within the industry, a slightly large seasonally expected decline was responsible for some of the seasonally adjusted gain in employment. So far the winter layoff has been modest with just 18 percent of the summer buildup having been lost three months into the layoff period as compared to an average loss of 23 percent.
MANUFACTURING — Manufacturing posted its second consecutive gain in November, adding 30,000 jobs. The gains in November, as in October, came primarily from the durable goods industries which added 24,000 jobs. Eight of the ten durable industries posted gains with notable increases in Lumber and wood products (SIC 24, +6), Fabricated metal products (SIC 34, +5) and Electronic and other electrical equipment (SIC 36, +7). The defense-related industries were the only durable industries that declined in November. A 9,000 loss in Aircraft and parts (SIC 372) overwhelmed gains in Motor vehicles and equipment (SIC 371) causing Transportation equipment (SIC 37) to decline. Losses continued in Instrument and related products (SIC 38) which contains the defense-related Search and navigation equipment. The nondurable goods industries added 6,000 jobs in November, its first increase in four months. The largest increases came in Rubber and miscellaneous plastic products (SIC 30, +7) and Printing and publishing (SIC 27, +4) and offset a fairly large loss in Apparel and related products (SIC 23, -5).
TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES — TPU gained 12,000 jobs in November making for the third consecutive gain. All of the gain was in Transportation as Communications and Public Utilities remained static in November.
WHOLESALE TRADE — Wholesale trade gained an encouraging 11,000 jobs in November. This is the largest gain since July, and is well above the average gain of 6,000 per month for the year. Except for the unusual losses in June and August, the industry has been on a steady growth trend since bottoming out in September of last year. Wholesale has gained 93,000 jobs during this time, and needs to add about 80,000 more to reach the peak levels of the late 1980’s. Both Wholesale sectors saw increases in November; 7,000 in Durables and 4,000 in Nondurables. Every three digit except Professional and commercial equipment (SIC 504) either gained employment or remained flat. The losses in Professional and commercial equipment have been caused by weakness in Computers (SIC 5045), and are partially responsible for holding down Wholesale employment for several months.
RETAIL TRADE — All employment declined by 17,000 seasonally adjusted in November 1993. This is only the second seasonally adjusted decline recorded this year. Declines were concentrated in General merchandise stores down 8,000, Food stores down 6,000, Apparel and accessory stores down 5,000, Furniture and home furnishings stores down 4,000 and Misc. retail establishments down 3,000. The increases occurred in Building materials and garden supplies up 6,000, Automotive dealers and service stations up 9,000 and Eating and drinking places up 10,000. AWH declined by .1 and AHE increased by $.01, seasonally adjusted.
FINANCE, INSURANCE, AND REAL ESTATE — FIRE gained 27,000 jobs in November. This industry has been strong for the past 3 months gaining an average of 20,000 jobs per month. The majority of the addition was in Finance , however, Real Estate also experienced a substantial gain in November.
SERVICES — Services had slightly strong growth in November, gaining 105,000 jobs to exceed the average growth of the preceding 12 months by 6,000. Weakness in business services (SIC 73) and lodging places (SIC 70) was more than made up for by slight to moderate strength in many other two-digit SIC industries, which exceeded their average gains in the preceding 12 months by at most 6,000.
GOVERNMENT — Government added 14,000 jobs in November. The gain came in State and Local government.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT — Employment in the Federal government declined by 1,000 jobs. Employment in the industry is down 31,000 over the year. The decline is due to reductions in the Department of Defense. The Postal Service continues to add jobs, despite attempts by postal management to reduce the work force. Many of these jobs are temporary, and were added to do the work of the 47,000 persons that retired last fall. In addition, jobs at remote bar code sites that are currently held by contract workers are now being given to postal workers. The Postal Service plans to add 22 new bar coding sites in the next year.
STATE GOVERNMENT — State government gained 6,000 jobs in November. This follows a gain of 36,000 for September and a 30,000 loss in October. These large movements are mainly attributable to the positioning of the reference weeks. State government education gained 5,000 jobs in November. The unadjusted buildup is in the range of past years.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT — Local government added 9,000 jobs in November. The unadjusted gain the non-education sector was typical of a non-election year. It included a strike return of 1,700 in local transportation and public utilities. Local government education gained 7,000 jobs. The preliminary unadjusted buildup is larger than last year..


Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1st Release.



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