One Month Net Change in Employment and Total Annual Change (in thousands) January 2017 – March 2024 (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Year Rank 2017 226 212 128 197 216 199 184 135 92 147 229 146 2111 5 2018 146 387 226 146 329 213 55 251 87 164 97 182 2283 4 2019 258 5 227 308 38 204 90 221 203 100 208 126 1988 6 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total 2020 253 264 -1411 -20477 2619 4615 1585 1534 1046 673 268 -243 -9274 7 2021 398 527 831 319 451 778 939 465 480 860 631 566 7245 1 2022 251 862 494 272 286 420 690 243 255 361 258 136 4528 2 2023 482 287 146 278 303 240 184 210 246 165 182 290 3013 3 2024 256 270(P) 303(P) 829 P = preliminary Total Employment More Americans were working in March 2024 than ever before. The total number employed was not only a recent high, it was a historical high. Since June 2022, each successive month has resulted in a record number of Americans working. In June 2022 total employment surpassed the February 2020 pre-pandemic historical high. The chart below shows total employment (in thousands) since January 2017. Approximately 158.1 million Americans were employed in March 2024, an increase of nearly 28 million workers since the April 2020 COVID low of 130.4 million. Almost 6 million more Americans were working in March 2024 than the pre-pandemic high of 152.3 million in February 2020.
Total Employees (in thousands) January 2017 – March 2024 (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Manufacturing employment is often viewed as a key benchmark for the labor market, as manufacturing jobs are generally higher paying and manufacturing of certain products is vital to the strategic interests of the United States. Manufacturing employment increased slightly from 12.366 million in January 2017 to 12.828 million in January 2019, an increase of 3.7%. However, manufacturing employment in 2019 was relatively unchanged. Despite economic growth, significant corporate tax breaks from the 2018 tax bill, and tariffs and trade wars, manufacturing employment ended the year at 12.798 million, a slight decline from the beginning of the year. The economic
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Center for Business and Economic Insight
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