Pandemic accelerated occupation shift trends, US Labor Department data shows

(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.

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