ANALYSIS: July Jobs Report Shows Workers Left Legal Occupations

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released July employment figures that show a decline in the jobless rate for legal occupations. But this improvement also came with a loss in legal occupations employment. The combination means that workers in July left the labor force, creating an artificially rosy view of unemployment in the legal sector.

In July, the unemployment rate fell in legal occupations and in the U.S. as a whole. Without accounting for seasonal adjustments, total U.S. unemployment dropped from 11.2% in June to 10.5% in July, while legal occupations unemployment fell 1.3 percentage points to 2.8%. That’s a good ...