November 29, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Services in recession

The services industry division is often alleged to be "recession-proof." Like many other strong generalizations about large groups, this statement is not universally true.

Differences in growth rates in recession and expansion, selected service industries, 1958-2000
[Chart data—TXT]

The services division as a whole does not lose jobs in periods of recession as designated by the non-partisan National Bureau of Economic Research. The division's rate of job growth, however, does drop significantly.

Important segments of the services division do, in fact, decline in employment during recession. Perhaps most notable among these are engineering and management services, personal services, and miscellaneous repair services. Only the health care industry bucks the trend by adding significantly more jobs in times of economic decline than it does during expansions.

The industry employment data referred to here are products of the Current Employment Statistics program. For more information, see William C. Goodman, "Employment in services industries affected by recessions and expansions," Monthly Labor Review, October 2001. (The National Bureau of Economic Research on November 26 designated March 2001 as the starting point of a recession.)

 

 

 

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 »