US Unemployment Rate by Industry (2024)
Unemployment rates are a strong indicator of a market’s performance and are key to understanding its potential. If you’re thinking about starting a business in the United States, knowing what the latest unemployment rates are according to industry can help guide your decision on what sector to break into. Here’s a look at a recent analysis of unemployment rates by industry.
US unemployment rate by industry: table
|
Industry |
Unemployment rate in October 2024 |
Unemployment rate in October 2023 |
|
Leisure and hospitality |
6.0% |
5.5% |
|
Wholesale and retail trade |
4.7% |
4.0% |
|
Transportation and utilities |
4.2% |
4.5% |
|
Professional and business services |
4.2% |
3.2% |
|
Construction |
4.2% |
4.0% |
|
Manufacturing |
3.6% |
3.1% |
|
Education and health services |
3.1% |
2.3% |
|
Information |
2.7% |
3.7% |
|
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction |
2.5% |
6.1% |
|
Financial activities |
1.9% |
2.2% |
|
Other services |
3.1% |
3.8% |
Unemployment rate by industry: top five
According to the latest numbers published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the leisure and hospitality industry currently has the highest unemployment rate. As of October 2024, this figure stands at 6%, which means that around one out of every 17 people aged 16 and above working in this sector is out of work. This equates to a workforce of 818,000 people and represents a 5.0 percentage point increase from the sector’s unemployment rate in October 2023.
Second on the list charting the job unemployment rate by industry is wholesale and retail trade. 4.7% of workers in this sector are unemployed, which is around 906,000 people. This is also the sector with the highest number of unemployed workers.
This is a 0.7 percentage point rise from a year ago. This is followed by three sectors which recorded the same unemployment rate of 4.2% in October 2024: transportation and utilities, professional and business services, and construction.
Unemployment rate by industry: others
Next on the ranking of unemployment rate by industry is manufacturing, with 3.6%, a 0.5 percentage point annual decrease. The education and health services and information sectors follow, with 3.1% and 2.7%, respectively. This accounts for 820,000 unemployed people in the education and health services industry and 71,000 in the information industry.
Employment rates among workers in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry experienced a massive 3.6 percentage point annual decrease, from 6.1% in October 2023 to 2.5% in October 2024. Rounding out the list of job unemployment rates by industry is financial activities, which saw its rate rise by 0.3 percentage points year on year, to 1.9%.
Of all the industries, four experienced annual falls in their unemployment rates: transportation and utilities, information, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, and financial activities.