It's Still a Service Economy, Even in a Pandemic
This recession will likely be the first to see jobs decline faster in services than in goods production, with an outsized impact on women. But it's a shortlived setback.
Manufacturing jobs held up better in the pandemic recession.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Amid a nonfarm payroll employment decline of 140,000 in December, the goods-producing industries — construction, manufacturing and mining (mainly oil and natural gas extraction) — together added 93,000 jobs, for a 0.5% monthly gain.
It makes sense that those sectors would be outperforming services jobs at the moment. The fall/winter resurgence of Covid-19 has led to renewed bans on indoor dining and other high-risk activities in some places and a general hunkering down everywhere, while manufacturing and construction activity — unlike during the spring lockdowns — has been able to continue. Payroll employment in leisure and hospitality fell by 498,000 in December, on a seasonally adjusted basis, more than making up for job gains not only in the goods-producing sector but in such industries as professional and business services and even retail.