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The professional and technical services sector saw significant job gains in July, amid continued growth in overall U.S. employment. At the same time, job growth in the legal services segment of the professional employment market remained stagnant, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report on the nation’s employment situation found that the legal services industry, which includes lawyers, paralegals, legal secretaries and other law-related professions, gained 100 jobs in July for a total of 1,144,200. This was by far the smallest gain in the professional and technical services sector, where only one industry, specialized design services, reported losing jobs.

Job growth in the professional sector is on par with increased growth during the first half of the year, although it remains tempered compared with 2018. So far in 2019, professional and business services has added 33,000 jobs per month, compared with 47,000 jobs per month in 2018.

At the same time, the legal services industry has made comparatively small gains in job growth compared with other industries in the professional sector.

In Friday’s report, the BLS did not update its provisional data from June 2019, in which it recorded 1,144,100 seasonally adjusted legal service jobs. For May 2019, the bureau adjusted legal service industry jobs to 1,143,500. The BLS numbers are subject to revision and are seasonally adjusted.

The modest job growth in the legal services industry is at odds with the overall professional and technical services sector, which the BLS highlighted as having “notable job gains” in July, along with the health care and financial services sectors. The bureau reported that the economy added 31,000 professional and technical jobs last month, bringing the sector’s 12-month total to 300,000 new jobs. This was largely driven by the computer systems design and related services industry, which accounted for about one-third of job growth in the sector.

Also contributing to job growth in the professional and technical services sector were management and technical consulting services, architectural and engineering services, accounting and bookkeeping services, scientific research and development services, and advertising and related services.

The legal service industry’s comparatively lackluster growth represented the smallest growth in the professional and technical jobs category, suggesting increasing conservatism in law firms and legal departments in the face of the threat of a recession in the next few years.

Although law firm leaders remain relatively confident about the legal industry, according to a Citi Private Bank survey earlier this month, they are less optimistic about the strength of the industry for the second half of the year. Some have strategically looked to grow into new markets, seeking geographic diversity partly as a hedge against a downturn.

And while the recession may not have arrived, some firms are already under pressure. Am Law 200 firm LeClairRyan has recently taken steps to dissolve following revenue and head count declines in recent years.

The nation’s total nonfarm employment gained 164,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent. This matches average growth for the first half of 2019 but remains about 33% lower than last year; in 2018, the economy averaged 223,000 new jobs per month.