US / What This Job Recovery Looks Like

If we look at trends over the last few years one can see how this recovery is taking hold.  Some of the significant changes which have taken place in the last 2 1/2 years include:

• Administrative positions have risen by 11% and temporary services have increased by 9.7%. These trends point out two trends: businesses are staffing back up, and we are moving further into a “contingent work economy.”
• Construction jobs are coming back (4.2% increase in jobs) and real estate is hot again. In my neighborhood (San Francisco East Bay) there are now dozens of homes open and people are bidding them up once again. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal shows that household wealth has returned to re-recession levels.
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• Jobs in leisure and hospitality are up 4.5% over the period, showing that people are starting to have time and money to enjoy our lives again. Consumer spending is one of the growth drivers of the entire economy. Of course for those in the 7.8% unemployment life is still tough, but overall this is a sign of economic confidence.
• Information services and financial service jobs have  increased around 2.5% over the period. While these are growing similarly to the rest of the economy, the nature of these jobs has changed dramatically. We have data which shows that the new software, IT, and financial jobs are much more analytic in nature. And positions in software development are growing rapidly.
• The economy has created 2 million jobs classified as “managers of business.” Most companies have hollowed out many of their middle management positions and this data shows that companies have confidence to rebuild their leadership teams.
• The US economy has created 1.7 million jobs in “professional and business services,” a 4.6% increase in the last 2 1/2 years (twice the rate of job growth in general). This is clearly a sign of the increasing “service nature” of work.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via What This Economic Recovery LooksLike – Forbes.