April 25 (Reuters) - Many of the fastest-growing
occupations held by U.S. workers in the run-up to the pandemic,
such as management, finance and transportation, gained even more
ground in the first two years of the health crisis, government
data released on Tuesday showed.
The Labor Department's annual snapshot of occupations and
what they pay also showed that a number of job categories that
were already struggling to attract workers before the pandemic
found those trends continued or accelerated in the chaotic job
market that emerged following the brief but historic employment
losses in the spring of 2020.
Indeed, the annual Occupational Employment and Wage
Statistics report appears to show the pandemic was a
trend-hastening event rather than a trend disrupter. A larger
share of jobs reshuffled across occupations from 2016 to 2019
than did so between 2019 and 2022, as the economy emerged from
the pandemic.
Only a handful of the major occupation groups that had held
steady or shown growth in their share of total employment from
2016 to 2019 flipped to losing share from 2019 to 2022. And all
of those that had lost the most ground before the health crisis
- office and administrative support jobs, sales roles and
personal care-related services - saw further erosion in its
aftermath.
The report is released each spring and provides a snapshot
from the prior May of more than 800 occupations, showing how
many people held those jobs and what each paid.
The data also shows the onset of the wage growth dynamics
that increasingly have become a worry for the Federal Reserve in
its fight to contain inflation. Across all occupations, average
hourly wages rose by 15.7% between May 2019 and May 2022,
roughly double the increase in the three years from May 2016 to
May 2019.
(Reporting By Dan Burns and Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea
Ricci)
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