More than 37,000 new jobs in the manufacturing sector were created in August.
But those numbers, just released by the Department of Labor, also show the impact that covid’s Delta variant is taking on the economy as retail jobs saw a 28,000 loss for the month, followed by government employment, with an 8,000-job decline.
For its part, the construction industry experienced a decline of more than 3,000 jobs over July. According to Data Digest, published by the Associated General Contractors of America, “the gap widened between residential and nonresident employment” in August.
Residential employment, which includes both residential building and specialty trade contractors, was actually up by 17,400 jobs in August.
The real industry loss was seen in the nonresidential sector, which includes heavy and civil engineering construction, posting a decline of 20,300 jobs last month.
The largest employment gainers were seen in the professional and businesses services category, which saw a jump of 74,000 new jobs in August, and the transportation and warehousing sector, up by 53,200 jobs.
Overall, the national economy saw a gain of 235,000, a number considerably lower than the 720,000 many analysts had predicted.
President Biden pointed to the emergence of the Delta variant as the prime reason for August’s somewhat lackluster employment growth, remarking: “Too many have not gotten vaccinated, and it’s creating a lot of unease in our economy and around our kitchen tables.”
In a statement, Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, agreed that the Delta variant was taking a toll on new job growth, but argued that “construction employment dynamics were more affected by ongoing supply-side bottlenecks.”
“Anecdotal evidence suggests that many projects have been put on hold,” Basu continued in a statement, adding, “This is due to lofty construction costs, which is the result of global supply chains in disarray and growing difficulty hiring skilled construction workers.”
By Garry Boulard
