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© Copyright 1993 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning


What's Happening in the Nation:

The Industry Employment Story

Total Nonfarm +162,000

July 1993

Total Private +158,000


Moderate growth was widespread in July. Construction and wholesale trade resumed job growth, and retail trade and services continued to add large numbers of workers. Finance and trucking perked up. Mining’s small decline resulted from additional coal miners going on strike. Although manufacturing employment failed to increase, its losses were much smaller than in recent months.

Statistically Significant Changes: + 24,000 Construction, + 79,000 Services, + 17,000 Wholesale trade, + 12,000 FIRE, - 13,000 Manufacturing, + 33,000 Retail trade, + 8,000 TPU, + 4,000 Government.

MINING -- Mining employment declined by 2,000 in July 1993. The loss was due to a coal strike. A small increase in Oil and Gas Extraction was offset by a small decline in Coal Mining.

Coal Mining — This industry lost 4,000 workers in July due to a decline in Bituminous coal and lignite mining (SIC 122). The decline is due to the continuing expansion of a strike, which started after the beginning of the survey week in May. The Union is pursuing a strategy of gradualism, calling out more strikers each week. As of the July survey week, we estimate that about 12,000 employees (11.9 percent of Coal mining employment) were out during the week of the twelfth. This is compared to last month’s strike total of 9,000. Coal is now 49,000 (33%) below its June 1990 peak and 22,000 below the level of its most recent trough (July 89). Coal has now declined 62% from its modern peak of 276,000, recorded in Feb 79.

Oil and Gas Extraction — Oil and gas gained 3,000 jobs, due to another healthy increase in Oil and gas field services (SIC 138). This subgroup has added employment in five of the seven months of 1993. It has been a relatively bright spot in the Mining industry, with employment gains of 13,000 over the year. These job gains were in sharp contrast to general decline elsewhere in Mining and were attributed to Hurricane Andrew repair work in the Gulf and to increased end-of-the-year drilling caused by the end of a ten-year-old tax credit (Section 29) on tight sands gas and coal bed methane. In 1993, this industry is benefiting from a rewrite of the tax laws contained in the 1992 energy bill, which gave independent field contractors their best tax treatment since the 1986 tax reforms. Integrated oil companies operations were excluded from the rewrite. The current rig count is up for the fourth month in a row, to the 720 level (unadjusted), up 9 or 1.3% from June. The average July rig count movement is up 3.0%. This is the second month since a large decline in February that the year ago figure has been lower than the current figure.

CONSTRUCTION — Led by gains in Special Trade Contractors, construction employment continued to improve in July, adding 24,000 jobs (0.5%). The increase was the third in the past four months, and leaves employment 147,000 (3.3%) above its last trough of September 1992. With this gain, construction has recovered 17% of the 865,000 jobs lost in the last industry downturn which began in February 1990. Through the first seven months of 1993, employment has increased by an average of over 19,000 per month. For all of 1992, construction declined by an average of 5,000 per month. Widespread flooding in the Midwest apparently had little impact upon employment in July. Nearly all regional estimates from the Midwest increased employment, following the national trend. Further, matched sample data from reports in affected counties showed net increases in employment. There were relatively few reports which cited natural disaster disruption, and many of these reports either held employment constant or showed increases.

MANUFACTURING —The manufacturing industry suffered its fifth straight loss in July, declining by 13,000 jobs. Manufacturing has lost over 150,000 jobs in 1993. The loss in July, however, was much smaller than the losses of the previous three months. Durable goods were responsible for the decline in July. Fabricated metal products (SIC 34), Industrial machinery (SIC 35), Transportation equipment (SIC 37), and Instruments and related products (SIC 38) remained the cause of the bleak behavior in the durable goods industries. Meanwhile, the nondurable goods industry remained flat in July. Within nondurable goods a fairly large loss in Paper and allied products (SIC 26) was offset by small gains in other industries.

TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES — Transportation and public utilities gained 8,000 jobs in July. The gain was split equally between the two divisions. If the flood related counties are eliminated from the sample, the estimate would have been about 5,000 higher. Average weekly hours increased by 0.4, and average hourly earnings increased by 3 cents, seasonally adjusted.

WHOLESALE TRADE — Wholesale trade experienced an energetic July by adding 17,000 new jobs to the payroll. This increase more than compensates for June’s dismal loss of 13,000 jobs. The gain was well above the average increase of 8,000 jobs per month during 1993, and is the largest since January. July’s gain, the ninth in the past ten months, is the greatest unadjusted gain in the past five years. Wholesale has now gained back over 50% of the jobs lost during the peak to trough period of March 1989 to September 1992. If wholesale continues to grow at the present rate, the industry should exceed the peak employment level by early next year. The flooding in the Midwest during July caused no measurable impact on the Wholesale trade industry.

FINANCE, INSURANCE, AND REAL ESTATE — Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate gained 12,000 jobs in July. All of the gains were in Finance.

SERVICES — Services gained 79,000 jobs in July, but the gain was 19,000 short of an average monthly gain in the preceding 12 months. Effects of the flooding in the Midwest cannot readily be determined because what the behavior of the reporting establishments in the affected areas would have been in the absence of the flood is unknown. Reports from the affected counties were generally stable, and no major effect is clear in any industry in services. But aggregate calculations, making several assumptions, indicate a possible effect of -13,000 jobs. The supplemental summer jobs program, also, had no clear effect in July. No major movements traceable to the program were found in the sample. Weaker-than-usual industries included the engineering and management services industry (SIC 87), with a movement that was 12,000 below average, and health services (SIC 80), with a movement 9,000 below the industry’s average monthly gain.

GOVERNMENT — Government gained 4,000 jobs in July, as losses in the Federal government and local government helped to offset a gain in State government.

Federal Government — The Federal government continued to lose jobs in July. July’s loss of 3,000 is a seventh consecutive decline; employment in this industry is down 57,000 over the year.

State Government — Employment in State government grew by 23,000 jobs. Unadjusted growth in the non-education sector was weaker than last year, but stronger than the year before. State government education added 34,000 jobs, as less jobs were lost than expected. The July loss was small because more jobs than usual were lost in June. The same layoff pattern occurred last year; these movements are most likely influenced by the position of the reference week.

Local Government — Local government employment declined by 16,000 jobs in July. Employment in the non-education sector was influenced by the addition of summer jobs funded by the Summer Youth Employment and Training program, which is administered under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). This was the second year that supplemental funding for summer jobs was provided; however, the amount was less than half of last year’s appropriation. It appears that the JTPA funding accounted for a gain of about 15,000 jobs in the non-education sector. These jobs fell in social services and general administration. Education employment fell by 10,000 jobs, as more jobs were lost than expected. Since the survey week in June was early, some declines were missed and thus were picked up in July. Secondly, the buildup was the largest ever, so there were more employees to lay off.

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



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Last modified on June 7, 2001 by Valerie A. Davis.