This Industry Is Laying Off the Most Workers

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 11, 8:30AM EDT

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This Industry Is Laying Off the Most Workers — © nikom1234 / Getty Images

The job market in America has exploded from the unemployment rate at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which approached Great Depression figures. In April of last year, the official jobless rate reached 14.5%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics. The number dropped to 5.4% last month, as the economy added 953,000 jobs. U.S. job openings set a record in June at 10.1 million.

However, not all industries were damaged equally by the pandemic, and not all have come back at the same rates. For example, low-paid jobs in the hospitality industry remain open at levels that have made it hard for those companies to operate effectively. So, while many employers are struggling to recruit and retain workers, some even offering signing bonuses and increased hourly wages, many others are still laying off, firing or furloughing employees, temporarily or permanently, albeit at lower rates than they did a year ago.

What industry is laying off the most workers now? To find out, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the rate and total number of layoffs and discharges across 19 key industry categories. Figures are for May 2021, the most recent month for which data is available, and compared with numbers from May 2020.
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The construction industry, damaged by the lack of new commercial buildings, tops the list. It might be worse if housing starts were not as strong as they are. Here are some details:

Layoff and discharges rate in May 2021: 1.80% (total: 138,000)
Total employment in May 2021: 7,417,000
Layoff and discharges rate in May 2020: 2.50%
Total employment in May 2020: 7,004,000

Click here to see all the industries laying off the most workers.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.