The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly employment report on July 5, which showed that the national economy added 195,000 jobs in the month of June and the unemployment rate remained steady at 7.6 percent. The number of jobs added is in line with the average of 182,000 jobs that the economy has been adding each month over the past year. The economy seems to be moving along at the same pace, neither speeding up nor slowing.
April’s job numbers were revised up, from 149,000 jobs added to 199,000 jobs added. And May’s job numbers were revised up as well, from 175,000 jobs added to 195,000 jobs added. That’s an additional 70,000 jobs added to the economy than had been initially reported on.
Similar to ADP and Moody’s Analytics monthly employment report released earlier this week, the number of jobs for both construction and professional services increased in June. ADP pegged the growth in construction at 21,000 jobs; the BLS saw a smaller 13,000 jobs. ADP pegged the growth in professional services at 40,000; the BLS found a larger 53,000 jobs.
In that professional and business services segment of the economy, architectural and engineering services added 3,000 jobs in June. While this wasn’t as high as the 4,900 jobs that the sector added in May, it is still healthy growth and in line with the amount of jobs that the sector has been adding for more than the past six months.
For the construction sector, the construction of nonresidential buildings actually added more workers than the residential sector in June—although neither sector added much. Nonresidential buildings added 700 workers; residential added 100 workers. Most of the growth in the construction sector in June was added in civil and heavy construction (5,600 jobs) and in specialty contractors (7,200 jobs).
| Not Seasonally Adjusted | Seasonally Adjusted | ||||||||
| Industry(numbers are in thousands) | June 2012 | April 2012 | May 2013 | June 2013 | June 2012 | April 2012 | May 2013 | June 2013 | Change from May to June |
| Architectural and engineering services | 1336.8 | 1336.9 | 1352.1 | 1367.9 | 1321.9 | 1347.8 | 1353.1 | 1356.1 | 3.0 |
| Construction – all (sum of the below categories) | 5820.0 | 5648.0 | 5837.0 | 6003.0 | 5622.0 | 5792.0 | 5799.0 | 5812.0 | 13.0 |
| Residential building construction | 588.4 | 567.0 | 585.8 | 602.8 | 571.8 | 584.1 | 584.8 | 584.9 | 0.1 |
| Nonresidential building construction | 673.1 | 663.4 | 674.2 | 688.2 | 661.0 | 678.9 | 676.7 | 677.4 | 0.7 |
| Heavy and civil engineering construction | 910.3 | 857.1 | 913.7 | 944.3 | 862.0 | 886.7 | 892.7 | 898.3 | 5.6 |
| Specialty trade contractors | 3648.3 | 3560.4 | 3662.9 | 3767.2 | 3527.6 | 3642.3 | 3644.6 | 3651.8 | 7.2 |
