The Health Care sector led job growth on an annual basis, with payrolls expanding by 111,800 or 3.6%. Other sectors posting strong gains over the past year include Leisure and Hospitality (45,700 or 2.3%), Retail Trade (22,400 or 1.4%), Education (19,700 or 4.6%), Other Services (6,900 or 1.2%), Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (5,800 or 0.7%), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (2,900 or 0.2%), and Real Estate (2,500 or 0.8%).

Information led job declines over the last year, with payrolls falling by 22,600, a -4.2% contraction. The losses are being driven by decreases in Software Publishers, Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries, and Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services. Other sectors with notable declines over the last year include Finance and Insurance (-15,500 or -3.2%), Admin Support (-12,800 or -1.2%), Manufacturing (-10,100 or -0.8%), Construction (-6,900 or -0.8%), Management (-5,600 or -1.9%), Government (-3,600 or -0.1%), and Wholesale Trade (-1,800 or -0.3%).

Month-over-month, the majority of the state’s sectors increased payrolls. Health Care led the gains in August, with payrolls expanding by 11,900, an increase of 0.4. The gains were driven by Ambulatory Health Care Services and Hospitals. Other sectors posting strong gains during the month include Government (9,800 or 0.4%), Leisure and Hospitality (7,800 or 0.4%), Education (6,700 or 1.5%), Retail Trade (4,500 or 0.3%), Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities (2,200, or 0.3%), Real Estate (1,100 or 0.4%), Manufacturing (800 or 0.1%), and Management (200 or 0.1%).

Finance and Insurance experienced the largest payroll decline in August month, with payrolls falling by -1,800, a drop of -0.4%. Other sectors posting significant declines during the month include Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (-1,400 or -0.1%), Information (-900 or -0.2%), Admin Support (-600 or -0.1%), Construction (-600 or -0.1%), Other Services (-400 or -0.1%), and Mining and Logging (-100 or -0.5%).