The legal services sector suffered a loss of 4,400 jobs in January, after hitting record employment figures in November and December, according to recent data
This reduction comes as a blow after the previous months’ unemployment figures revealed a high-water mark in legal sector employment. The details, as presented in seasonally adjusted and preliminary figures, were released in the Employment Situation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Elsewhere in the report, the overall U.S. economy also poised a considerable gain of 49,000 jobs in January. However, the legal sector, comprising legal aid societies, corporate legal departments, and legal service clinics, was not within the sectors enjoying these employment gains.
Notably, the legal industry’s employment has been experiencing a roller coaster ride, mainly due to the economic implications of the ongoing pandemic. In April 2020, the industry witnessed a massive job loss of 68,000, earning it the distinction of being the worst month in the sector’s history in terms of employment.
Nonetheless, the sector has been steadily recuperating, gaining back almost 75 percent of those lost jobs by December 2020. The recent reduction in jobs, however, represents a slight setback for a sector that has been on a slow but steady path to recovery.
As is the nature of preliminary figures, the BLS indicates that this data may be subject to revision in the coming months. This means that legal sector professionals and industry watchers will be eagerly awaiting next month’s Employment Situation report for a clearer picture of the industry’s job market health.