On April 3, we reviewed the impact of economic downturns on people working in legal occupations in the United States. That analysis provided a look at unemployment figures for legal occupations—past and present—with a breakout by gender.
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released unemployment rates for the month of April, so it is time to update the data and all the graphics provided in our April 3 analysis.
If you have been monitoring the weekly unemployment figures, it will be no surprise that April’s total unemployment rate was higher than March’s. And it’s no shock that legal occupations also saw an uptick. Total unemployment (not seasonally adjusted) jumped from 4.5% to a whopping 14.4%. Legal occupations saw an increase (not seasonally adjusted) from 2.2% to 3.7%. The difference between the increase in legal markets unemployment and total unemployment was dramatic; total U.S. unemployment more than tripled, while legal occupations rose by 68%. The last time legal occupations experienced an unemployment rate this high was in 2013.
Job losses in April hit men harder than women. Men saw their unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) more than double, jumping from 2.0%% to 4.8%. Women saw a mere 0.2 percentage point increase to 2.6% (not seasonally adjusted).
Stay tuned for more exciting news on employment in legal occupations!
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