Telecom sector down 47,800 jobs from one year ago

The telecommunications sector had 4,600 fewer jobs in May than in April, employing 929,500 positions in May. However, the year-over-year employment figures show a loss of 47,800 jobs since May 2009 – a nearly 4.9% increase, according to new U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Drilling down a little further, it appears that most of those job losses occurred in the wireline segment. From April 2009 to April 2010, 60,000 jobs were lost in the wireline category. (Those statistics lag a month behind the overall category segment so April statistics are the most recent available. Also, the figures are not seasonally adjusted.) In the wireless subsector, 200 jobs were lost from April 2009 to April 2010. The wireless sector accounted for 194,200 jobs in April 2010.
By state, California lost 7,700 jobs from April 2009 to April this year, now accounting for 105,500 people in the telecommunications sector. In Georgia, home to AT&T Corp., the Labor Bureau counted 50,700 jobs in April, down 500 from a year ago. The wireless sector in Georgia added 600 positions from April 2009 to April 2010, accounting for 10,900 jobs in April. In Kansas, home to Sprint Nextel Corp., 2,200 fewer telecom jobs are there today vs. one year ago. The bureau counted 19,600 telecom jobs in April. Two hundred jobs were added in the telecom sector in New Jersey, headquarters for Verizon Communications Inc. and Verizon Wireless, from April 2009 to April 2010. The state had 37,300 telecom jobs in April. A total of 88,800 telecom jobs were counted in Texas in April, down 5,100 from a year ago. These unemployment figures are not seasonally adjusted so a year-to-year comparison is more accurate than a month-to-month comparison, noted Cheryl Abbot, a regional economist in the U.S. Labor Bureau’s Texas office.
Year over year, telecom unemployment is up, from 7.2% to 7.9% this May, although the month-to-month unemployment rate is trending down, from 8.7% to 7.9%. Thirteen mass layoff events took place in April, and 1,188 initial claimants filed unemployment claims in the telecom sector, according to Labor Bureau statistics. Again, while the month-to-month figures can bring some insight into trends in the sector, they are not seasonally adjusted and so not as accurate. Abbot also explained another reason the telecom sector could have lost jobs from April to May but also show a decline in the unemployment rate: The bureau only counts the number of unemployed persons who are actively looking for jobs. So if a person has been unemployed and not looked for a job for several months, they are not included in statistics because to be classified as unemployed, a person has to be actively seeking a job. Sometimes, when people see the economy starting to improve, they begin to seek employment again and therefore can be considered “unemployed.”
Computer sector
The computer and electronics products sector saw 2,800 jobs added from April to May, with 1,500 people added in the communications equipment subsector and 1,200 jobs added in the semiconductors and electronic components category. Computer equipment and peripherals saw 700 jobs added but there were 300 fewer jobs in electronic instruments category from month to month. The Labor Bureau counted 1.096 million jobs in the computer and electronics sector in May.
Unemployment in the computer and electronics products sector trended downward from an April unemployment rate of 10.4% to 7.2% in May, while the year-over-year unemployment rate dropped even more significantly, from 15.4% in May 2009 to 7.2% last month. Nevertheless, the number of jobs in the sector was down from April 2009 to April 2010. A total of 1.144 million jobs were counted in the sector in April 2009, compared to 1.096 million this year.
Overall, the nation’s nonfarm payroll employment grew by 431,000 in May, mostly due to 411,000 temporary employees hired to work on Census 2010.