February employment is down 7% from February 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to keep job counts below year-ago levels. The 7% loss equates to a loss of 22,300 jobs.
Leisure and hospitality recorded the biggest losses with 7,300 less jobs than the previous February, a loss of 23.3%. Oil and gas employment was down 3,900, a loss of 38.2%. The transportation, warehousing and utilities sector had 1,800 less jobs, a loss of 9%. The job counts for the professional and business services sector and private education and healthcare were both 1,600 lower, a loss of 5.9% and 3.1% respectively.
Because of COVID-19 pandemic related hires, state government’s job count was up 200 from the previous February. That’s because of the hiring of contract tracers and staff to process unemployment insurance claims. Federal employment was down 200 from last February, when the 2020 Census was under way. Local government losses were the largest, specifically in the K-12 public education.
Job losses remain historically large, and unemployment claims during the second week of February were 3.75 times higher than the same week in 2020. More information can be found here.