Total nonfarm employment recovers in 2022, with some major industry sectors lagging behind

In June 2022, total nonfarm employment recovered from its historic pandemic-related declines and began to expand. However, while many major industry sectors expanded beyond their February 2020 levels in 2022, employment in several sectors remained below its prepandemic level. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, nonfarm payroll employment in the United States recovered in 2022 from the widespread job losses caused by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.1 (See chart 1.) Nonfarm employment rose by 4.8 million in 2022, the second largest calendar-year gain in the history of CES. The largest calendar-year gain in the history of CES occurred in 2021 (+7.3 million), the year immediately following the onset of the pandemic. As of December 2022, nonfarm employment had expanded by 2.2 million above its February 2020 (or prepandemic) level.