The hiring flash in bars, restaurants and hotels continued in July as demand for chefs, service staff and lodging workers drove the US into another robust month of job growth.
The broad leisure and hospitality sector, which also includes gastronomy and accommodation, increased again with a total increase of 380,000 jobs. A little more than 250,000 of these jobs were in restaurants and bars.
The midsummer months and relaxed Covid-19 fears are driving more Americans to eat out and have sparked a strong comeback in a sector that the pandemic wiped out in 2020, economists say.
The Department of Labor noted that the recent comeback in the leisure and hospitality industry has resulted in employment in the sector being only 10% below February 2020 levels.
Headlines from the July 2021 job report showed that the U.S. economy created 943,000 jobs in the past month and that the unemployment rate fell sharply from 5.9% to 5.4%. CNBC examined the net changes by industry for July jobs based on data from the government’s employment report.
The government’s hiring also built on a recent rally that net added 240,000 jobs. State and local governments contributed the bulk of these profits as universities and other public school districts were staffed before the fall semester of 2021.
“In July there were notable increases in employment in the leisure and hospitality sectors, community education, and professional and business services,” said a press release from the Ministry of Labor. “Education staff turnover due to the pandemic distorted the normal seasonal build-up and layoff patterns and likely contributed to the July job growth.”
Manufacturing and construction created a healthy 27,000 and 11,000 jobs, respectively, while transportation and storage added nearly 50,000.
Health care and welfare added to 46,800 people and the broad professional and corporate services industries added 60,000.
The retail sector saw a slight net loss of 5,500 jobs. Building materials and gardening supply stores lost more than 30,000 jobs during the month as Americans withdrew their home projects and gardening sales plummeted in the spring.
– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to the coverage.
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