Employment Change by Sector, November-December 2011

The 200,000 jobs gained in December were distributed by sector as shown in the following graphic:

Notable this month is the gain in every private sector of the economy—a first since I began publishing such details on LaMarotte. Government still showed a loss of 12,000 jobs. The massive gainer in employment was the Transportation and Warehousing sector. Here is the detail of the industries that it contains:

Transportation and warehousing	50.2
Air transportation	0.8
Rail transportation	0.5
Water transportation	0.7
Truck transportation	5.1
Transit	-0.4
Pipeline transportation	0.8
Scenic and sightseeing	-0.4
Support activities	-0.7
Couriers and messengers	42.2
Warehousing and storage	1.6

The real growth here came from courier and messenger services—the categories where UPS and FedEx belong. That number probably highlights a major change in Christmas season purchasing behaviors—and indirectly points to the increasing importance of Internet retail.