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Where Americans Found Jobs: Offices, Clinics, Construction

2 min read

WASHINGTON — If you were looking for a job last month, you might have found plenty of opportunities in white-collar offices, health care, construction and restaurants.

Those sectors hired at a brisk clip, with “professional services” and “education and health” adding 107,000 jobs in November — 60 percent of all the net positions the economy gained.

Over the past 12 months, those two sectors have generated a robust total of more than 1.1 million jobs.

More: See more about the U.S. jobless rate here, and read about metropolitan area unemployment in Arkansas in October here.

Professional services, which tend to offer higher pay, include jobs in accounting, computer systems design, management consulting, scientific research and administrative support.

Construction hiring was also on an upward swing, adding 19,000 jobs in November. That gain was led by residential builders and trade contractors, reflecting a surge in home building.

In October, builders broke ground on the most homes in nine years, according to the Commerce Department.

Categories that lost jobs last month included manufacturing, retail and information.

Manufacturing has shed 54,000 jobs over the past 12 months, while all other major industries have expanded employment.

Overall, employers added 178,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent, a nine-year low.

Industry (change from previous month) November 2016 October 2016 Past 12 months
Construction 19,000 14,000 155,000
Manufacturing -4,000 -5,000 -54,000
Retail -8,300 -8,900 222,600
Transportation, warehousing 8,900 12,200 60,600
Information (Telecom, publishing) -10,000 -3,000 15,000
Financial services 6,000 9,000 153,000
Professional services (Accounting, engineering, temp work) 63,000 48,000 571,000
Education and health 44,000 44,000 581,000
Hotels, restaurants, entertainment 29,000 15,000 293,000
Government 22,000 7,000 217,000
Source: Labor Department

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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