- The most recent jobs report showed that between May and June, Maryland lost 8,000 Total Private jobs while gaining 1,000 Government jobs, resulting in an overall loss of 7,000 Total Nonfarm positions.
- Maryland’s loss of 7,000 Total Nonfarm positions is the largest monthly decrease in total jobs since August 2011.
- The unemployment rate for Maryland remained constant at 3.8 percent in June.
According to the most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Maryland lost 7,000 Total Nonfarm positions between May and June. This is the largest single month job loss for Maryland since August 2011. The loss between May and June was a result of an 8,000 position decrease among Total Private jobs, slightly offset by a gain of 1,000 Government positions. Maryland’s unemployment rate in June was 3.8 percent, which remains unchanged since March.
Following the downward trend seen in previous months, this means that Maryland has lost a total of 13,700 nonfarm jobs since January 2019. These losses have been concentrated heavily in the Retail Trade sector, which has lost 5,400 jobs since January, and the Leisure and Hospitality sector, with a decrease of 6,600 jobs since January. This suggests that many of the jobs being lost in Maryland belong to workers with relatively low levels of education and income. During the same period, high income sectors like Financial Activities and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services have maintained or increased in total positions.
On the supersector level, the biggest decreases between May and June were reported in the Trade, Transportation, and Utilities sector which declined by 3,500 jobs, Leisure and Hospitality with a decrease of 2,300 positions, and the Other Services sector which lost 1,900 jobs. Beyond the gain of 1,000 Government jobs, the only significant increase was seen in Manufacturing, which added 1,500 jobs in June. On the subsector level, Maryland’s largest gain was in Local Government, with a gain of 2,400 jobs. Maryland’s next highest gains were in Transportation and Utilities, which added 1,600 jobs, and Non-Durable Goods, which gained an additional 1,200 positions. The largest declines on the subsector level were in health Care and Social Assistance (down by 2,600 jobs), Accommodation and Food Services (lost 2,200 jobs), Retail Trade (dropped 1,900 positions), and Other Services (also lost 1,900 positions).
While Maryland experienced a significant loss in jobs, neighboring states in the Mid-Atlantic region (Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.) combined to add a total of 1,000 nonfarm jobs between May and June, with a gain of 2,400 Total Private jobs and a loss of 1,400 Government positions. This overall gain was primarily driven by growth in Washington D.C., with Maryland’s other neighbors experiencing little overall change. Neighboring states’ largest gains on the supersector level were in Professional and Business Services, which added 3,300 jobs, and Information, which gained 1,700 jobs. The largest overall losses in these states were reported in the Leisure and Hospitality sector (decreased 1,900 jobs) and the Trade, Transportation, and Utilities sector (lost 1,800 positions). The unemployment rate for neighboring states in June remained unchanged at 3.5 percent.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Employment Workbook
To make more sense of what’s happening with Maryland’s employment numbers, we’ve embedded our new tool: the Mid-Atlantic Regional Employment Workbook. This dashboard allows you to examine 29 different industries and see how employment is varying in Maryland as well as four other states in the Mid-Atlantic region. To use the dashboard select a sector of the economy that interests you from the dropdown at the top. When you change the sector of interest, the map and five line graphs will update to reflect historical data for that industry. Want to know how employment changed in the sector last month? Hover over each state in the map for percentage changes. Or hover over the line graphs to get more detailed information on the number of employees each month since January 2017 by state.
