Law Sector Gains 1,500 Jobs in July Only to Lose 1,400 in August

The legal market giveth, the legal market taketh away. The 1,500 legal sector hires of July have been all but neutralized by the 1,400 losses of August — according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and as reported at Am Law Daily and the wall Street Journal Law Blog. This leaves the overall market at 1.118 million as of August, which is 1,400 up from the beginning of 2012, and 3,200 up from August 2011.

It seems, then, that the legal market is at least heading in the right direction, but though it lost the 1,400 in August, the professional and technical services industry as a whole gained 26,800 jobs. Other fields, such as architecture, computer software design, and scientific research were faced with a more benevolent employment god than the stern face he’s given lawyers.

It seems that the good news in unemployment, that it is down from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent between July and August, is also no more exciting than stale coffee: the reason seems to be that 368,000 job seekers simply stopped seeking. The trajectory of unemployment still isn’t moving in the right direction, despite appearances.

Legal services may not be flying as high as 1.17 million strong heydays before the 2008 global market crash, but at least they are nosing up rather than sinking down.