Legal employment has broken pre-pandemic records, revised figures show

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Legal employment has broken pre-pandemic…

Careers Legal employment has broken pre-pandemic records, revised figures show

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 8, 2022, 2:24 pm CST

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The number of legal jobs broke pre-pandemic records in October 2021, according to revised data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Law.com has the story. In October 2021, the legal services sector had 1,168,600 jobs, surpassing the pre-pandemic high set in February 2020 by 5,600 jobs.

The number of legal jobs continues to climb. Seasonally adjusted numbers for January 2022 show the legal sector had 1,176,600 jobs, which is 40,100 jobs higher than in January 2021 and 13,600 jobs higher than in February 2020, when there was a high of 1,163,000 legal jobs.

The bureau revised data after studying monthly fluctuations and “normal seasonal movements” in an annual review, BLS economist Ryan Ansell told Law.com. Legal employment was underestimated by 12,000 to 18,000 jobs since December 2020, Ansell said.

The new January 2022 number shows a gain of 1,800 jobs from December 2021, when the legal services sector had 1,174,800 jobs.

The jobs number is based on payroll jobs for attorneys and staff members working at firms providing legal services. The jobs data can change in monthly revisions, as well as the annual look-back process.

Legal employment plummeted by 68,600 jobs in April 2020, according to BLS figures revised following an annual review for that time period.

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