Just two industry supersectors added jobs in December, while seven supersectors exhibited declines.  Leisure & hospitality was unchanged.  On the plus side were other services (900, 1.5%) and financial activities (300, 0.2%).  Note that this is the second consecutive month of job growth in the strategic Finance and insurance Industry which had previously shed jobs throughout the recession / recovery cycle to date.

The seven declining industry supersectors may have been weather impacted to some degree and were led lower by the professional business services (-2,600, -1.3%).  In this grouping, much of the weakness came from administrative and support services (-3,400, -3.9%), more specifically from services to building and dwellings which can be affected by the weather.  Trade transportation & utilities also lost jobs (-1,300, -0.4%) with most of the decline coming from transportation and utilities (-1,200, -2.3%) and a slight drop from retail trade (-100, -0.05%).  Wholesale trade was unchanged.  The combined construction and mining (-300, -0.5%) industry supersector was lower as well.  Manufacturing lost jobs (-300,-0.2%), with the more capital intensive durable goods component (-300, -0.2%) weaker. The nondurable goods segment went unchanged.  The education and health services supersector (-300, -0.1%) also posted a small decline.  Education (-1,300, -1.9%) was decidedly lower with weakness from private colleges and universities while a health services gain (1,000, 0.4%) could not offset the overall supersector decline.  The information supersector (-200, -0.7%) was lower last month as well.  And again government employment continued to decline (-100, -0.1%) with the entire monthly drop associated with local government (-200, -0.1%).

1.)     Education and Health Services (7,900, 2.5%)                6.) Information (-600, -1.9%)

2.)     Construction and Mining (5,800, 11.4%, combined)       7.) Government (-1,300, -0.5%)

3.)     Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (4,200, 1.4%)          8.) Financial Activities (-1,300, -1.0%)

4.)     Professional and Business Services (1,400, 0.7%)          9.) Other Services (-1,400, -2.2%)

5.)     Leisure and Hospitality (800, 0.6%)                               10.) Manufacturing (-4,000, -2.5%)