TED: The Editor's Desk

January 09, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment up by 2 million in 2005

From December 2004 to December 2005, total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 2.0 million.

Annual change in nonfarm payroll employment, 1999-2005 (December-December)
[Chart data—TXT]

Professional and business services employment increased by 486,000 over the year. Employment in the health care industry expanded by 271,000.

The construction industry added 246,000 jobs over the year. Employment growth in residential building and residential specialty trade contractors accounted for about two-thirds of this gain.

Financial activities posted an over-the-year gain of 188,000. Much of this increase occurred in credit intermediation and real estate.

Mining added 48,000 jobs from December 2004 to December 2005 , with most of the growth occurring in support activities for mining, particularly oil and gas.

Payroll employment data in this article are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for December 2005 are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation: December 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-07.

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »