Legal Industry Adds 4,100 Jobs, Outpacing US Employment Growth

Legal sector employment grew by about a third of a percent in August, according to the latest U.S. government jobs report, adding around 4,100 additional jobs after a three-month stretch of little to no growth.

The legal industry, composed of attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries and others, employed 1,148,100 people in August, according to seasonally adjusted figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure has varied by just a few thousand in recent years, and has still failed to catch up to pre-Great Recession numbers.

The overall U.S. job market grew by just 0.08% in August. The broader professional and business services sector added 37,000 jobs in August, an increase of about two-tenths of a percent.

The U.S. added 130,000 non-farm jobs, according to BLS, missing analysts' expectations of 160,000. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 3.7%. The August pace was weak in comparison to the rest of 2019, only buttressed by 25,000 federal government jobs related to the upcoming 2020 census.

The August results for the legal industry show an additional 5,700 jobs compared to this time last year and reverse the effects of the 1,000 jobs lost in July of this year. While small variances have occurred, seasonality that effects many other industries doesn't seem to play a large part in legal job availability.

The Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark rate another 0.25% in two weeks when policy makers get together. Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist at Oxford Economics, told the The New York Times that the cut was an effort to offset the negative economic activity facilitated by the Trump administration's continuing trade war with China.

While service jobs grew at a solid clip, factories added just 3,000 jobs in August, while mining and logging collectively lost 5,000 jobs.

Those marginally attached to the workforce, people who wanted and were available for work but were unable to secure employment, numbered around 1.6 million, about the same as last year at this time. Of those, about 500,000 were "discouraged" workers; those who have actively stopped looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available to them.

The overall average monthly job growth sits at 158,000 for 2019, well below the 230,000 average for 2018.

Other interesting BLS statistics:

Average non-farm pay increased by $0.11 to $28.11 per hour.
The average workweek increased 0.1 hours to 34.4.
General merchandise stores lost 15,000 jobs for the month, making 80,000 jobs losses for the year.