The U.S. economy has been adding a lot of jobs lately. But what kind of jobs?
I've been digging around in the payroll employment numbers again, and the first thing I noticed is that most of the sectors that saw big gains in February's payroll report aren't exactly high-end. Food services and drinking places (average hourly earnings: $12.70) added 58,700 jobs in the month, seasonally adjusted; retail trade ($17.33) added 32,000; couriers and messagers ($18.92) 12,300.
Health care and social assistance, which added 32,800 jobs, pays a bit better -- $25.31 an hour, or just over the national average for private, nonfarm employers. But one category really stood out. Professional and technical services, with average hourly earnings of $38.26, added 31,800 jobs. It's been growing like this for years. Here's the performance of the sector, broken down into its five constituent parts, since the jobs recovery began in early 2010:
Consultants
The legal profession is in a long, slow decline. Computer systems design (often called information-technology consulting) and management consulting are booming. I'm not sure if this is because corporations are reinventing themselves with the help of consultants, or just outsourcing work to consultants to keep head count down. In any case, adjust your career plans accordingly. Also, don't yell at me because the chart doesn't go to zero.
Since you're reading Bloomberg View, though, there's a reasonable chance that you've already made career plans in finance. How's that been going? According to the jobs trajectory since 2005, not great. But not necessarily horribly either:
read more: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-09/consulting-is-booms-and-so-is-bartending-serving-food
No comments:
Post a Comment