Local Governments Continue to Lose Non-Education Related Jobs, Despite Continued Recovery of Other Major Sectors

After a loss of 1.3 million local government jobs in April and May, the number of local government jobs remained largely unchanged in June, increasing only by a nominal amount of 0.4 percent (57,000 jobs) – according to the newly released June jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This nominal increase was entirely driven by education jobs in the local government sector. With schools beginning to reopen, local governments added 70,300 jobs in education.

Non-education local government jobs continued to decline for the third consecutive month, decreasing by 13,800 in June and bringing the total number of non-education jobs lost to local government over 537,000. Non-education jobs in local government include healthcare practitioners, social workers, law enforcement officers, court clerks, sanitation workers, librarians, transit employees, utility workers, maintenance crews and construction workers, which collectively provide essential services and resources to communities.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS CONTINUE TO LOSE NON-EDUCATION JOBS, DESPITE RECOVERY OF OTHER MAJOR SECTORS

Change in the number of jobs by selected industries, April through June 2020

Source: NACo Analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report Published 07/02/2020

NON-EDUCATION LOCAL GOVERNMENT JOBS DECREASE FOR THIRD CONSECUTIVE MONTH, EDUCATION JOBS RISE SLIGHTLY

Local Government Employment, 2020, Indexed (Jan. 2020 = 100)

Meanwhile, other major jobs sectors continued the recovery process: 4.8 million jobs were added in June and the unemployment rate decreased by 2.2 percentage points to 11.1 percent.

• Leisure and hospitality added 2.1 million jobs.
• Retail trade added 740,000 jobs.
• Education and health services added 568,000 jobs.
• Manufacturing added 356,000 jobs.
• Professional and business services added 306,000 jobs
• Construction, transportation and every other major sector also added jobs in June, with the exception of mining, which lost another 10,000 jobs.

The recovery process has been uneven across the nation. Although temporary layoffs decreased for the second consecutive month (by 4.8 million in June), permanent job losses continued to rise, even more substantially than in previous months, increasing from 588,000 to 2.9 million in June, and thus demonstrating that even as jobs are added back to the economy, many workers are finding themselves in a worse situation.

The unemployment rate declined for all major worker groups in June but remained uneven between them.

• White workers had the lowest unemployment rate (10.1 percent), followed by Asian workers (13.8 percent).
• Hispanic workers saw the largest decrease in the unemployment rate (3.1 percentage points), causing the unemployment rate for Hispanic workers (14.5 percent) to drop below that of Black or African American workers (15.4 percent).

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FURTHER DECREASES AS SLOW, UNEVEN RECOVERY CONTINUES

U.S. Unemployment Rate, 2004-2020

Source: NACo Analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report Published 07/02/2020

Overall, the June jobs report from BLS discloses a national workforce in the beginning phases of a slow, uneven recovery process, and still far from pre-pandemic levels.

• The increase of 4.8 million jobs in June leaves the U.S. economy with nearly 15 million jobs less than in February 2020.

• And June’s unemployment rate of 11.1 percent remains 7.6 percentage points higher than February’s unemployment rate of 3.5 percent.

The landscape of the nation: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collected its data for the June jobs report during the week beginning June 7. During that time, COVID-19 cases in the U.S. topped 2 million and the number of COVID-19 related deaths rose above 110,000. Over 2,900 counties had at least one COVID-19 case, and nearly 1,800 counties had at least one COVID-19 related death.

By this time, the U.S. Treasury had distributed aid to states and local governments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), but less than 5 percent of all counties were eligible for a direct payment. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) had also approved nearly 4.6 million loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), amounting to over $500 billion (but leaving $130 billion available).

This analysis was conducted by the National Association of Counties (NACo) on data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) “Employment Situation – June 2020,” released July 2, 2020. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Research@NACo.org.

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