The Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported a loss of 20,000 jobs in the Finance and Insurance sector for August, following a revised loss of 15,100 jobs reported by the BLS for July. Losses of 12,800 loss in the Insurance sector were the largest component of the overall employment decline.
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The Financial Services Hiring Demand Indicator–a measure of year-over-year change in online job advertising– rose for the fourth consecutive month, from -32 percent in July to -27 percent in August. Outside of the Insurance sector, the level of job losses has generally been improving over the past several months.
Within the NAICS code subcategories in the Financial sector, Hiring Demand data for NAICS 522, Credit Intermediation and Related Services—the banking industry—showed a 5 percent drop in online job ads, ending four consecutive months of upward trending. BLS reported a loss of 4,900 jobs in August, down from July's revised gain of 400 jobs.
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In NAICS 523, Securities, Commodity Contracts and Other Financial investments — the brokerage community–we saw another strong uptick in Hiring Demand, from -20 percent in July to -12 percent in August. This marks the fourth consecutive month of strong gains in Hiring Demand since April. BLS reported a loss in August of 2,300 jobs, an improvement from its revised July number of -5,000.
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The news was bleak today for the Insurance sector. In NAICS 524, Insurance Carriers and Related, August employment fell 12,800 jobs, a new three-year low. Also, July's loss was revised significantly downwards, from 4,800 to 9,400. Hiring Demand data showed a strong uptick in July to -17 percent, up from -31 percent in June, but dropped back 4 percent in August to -21 percent.
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