Data Analysis: A Graphical Tour of the Preliminary COVID-19 Spring Job Losses

Industries with Accelerating Job Losses

While most of the industries the BLS reported on in May had slowing losses, there were six industries that appeared to have accelerating losses in May. These industries are:

1) State Government, Excluding Education

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After only encountering a seasonally adjusted loss of 3,000 in April, State Governments shed almost 21,000 job in May, a 590% increase over the prior month.

2) Telecommunications

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Telecommunications experienced a 387% increase in the rate of job losses in May, losing an estimated 7.8 thousand jobs in May compared to only 1.6 thousand losses in April.

3) Other Information Services

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Job losses in this sector for April were 1.4 thousand; losses for May were 4.7 thousand, an increase of 235%

4) Electronics and Appliance Stores

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This industry had over 94,000 job losses in May 2020, with month-to-month job losses up 155% from April, back when seasonally adjusted losses were only 37,000.

5) Communications Equipment

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There were also accelerating losses in this industry, with the rate job losses increasing 58% in May.

6) Semiconductors and Electronic Components

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Semiconductors and Electronic Components had only the slightest increase in the rate of job losses, with the number of job losses increasing 6% to 3.4 thousand, up from 3.2 thousand losses.

Again, these are all sectors where job losses accelerated in May 2020. For the industries that have encountered the most catastrophic job losses, jump to Part 4.

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