Health Care led growth over the last year, with payrolls expanding by 140,500 or 5.2%. Other sectors posting strong gains over the last year were Government (59,400 or 2.3%), Leisure and Hospitality (40,100 or 2.0%), Other Services (20,600 or 3.5%), Education (17,800 or 4.5%), and Construction (17,000 or 1.9%).

Information led declines over the last year, with payrolls falling by 42,600, a -7.5% decrease. Other sectors with notable declines over the past year were Manufacturing (-21,600 or -1.6%), Finance and Insurance (-9,500 or -1.9%), Wholesale Trade (-5,100 or -0.8%), Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (-3,800 or -0.5%), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (-2,100 or -0.1%), Retail Trade (-1,500 or -0.1%), and Management (-1,200 or -0.5%).

At the industry level, growth was broad based in May. Leisure and Hospitality led the gains with payrolls expanding by 10,200, an increase of 0.5% on a month-over-month basis. However, payrolls in Leisure and Hospitality are still 0.5% below their pre-pandemic peak.

Payrolls in Hollywood have been slow to recover from both the COVID-19 pandemic and the writers’ strike last year. Payrolls in the Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industry in Los Angeles (MD) are down 10.9% over the last year and have fallen by 16.8% over the last five years. In addition, Los Angeles’ portion of the domestic film and TV economy shrank last year amid devastating industry struggles, but it remains by far the most powerful entertainment player in the United States.

Other sectors posting strong gains during the month were Health Care (9,900 or 0.4%), Administrative Support (6,600 or 0.6%), Government (5,600 or 0.2%), Other Services (3,700 or 0.6%), Construction (2,800 or 0.3%), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (2,600 or 0.2%), Real Estate (2,100 or 0.7%), Finance and Insurance (1,800 or 0.4%), Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (1,700 or 0.2%), and Retail Trade (1,200 or 0.1%).

Payrolls decreased a handful of sectors in May. Information saw the largest payroll decline, falling by -1,900 positions, a contraction of -0.4% on a month-over-month basis. This decline follows a slowdown in the tech and movie industries over the past year.

Other sectors posting significant declines during the month were Manufacturing (-1,400 or -0.1%), Education (-600 or -0.1%), Wholesale Trade (-400 or -0.1%), and Management (-200 or -0.1%).