US Employment and Jobs

There were 131,072,000 jobs in the US in April 2020 according to the CES survey of employers. The CPS survey of households showed 133,403,000 employed persons for the month. The US lost 20,500,000 jobs in April 2020 according to the CES survey while the broader CPS employment measure fell by 22,369,000. (Comparing CES and CPS employment numbers.)

Employment Survey	April 2020	Month/Month	Year/Year
CES	131,072,000	-20,500,000	-19,420,000
CPS	133,403,000	-22,369,000	-23,293,000

Employment Changes

The charts below show the monthly change in the US as measured by the CES and CPS surveys. To illustrate the trend, the 3 month moving average change in employment is shown in green.

CES Employment Change: 1 Month, Rolling 3 Month

CPS Employment Change: 1 Month, Rolling 3 Month

Total US Employment

CES employment peaked for the US in February 2020 at 152,442,000. Since then 21,370,000 jobs have been lost according to the employer survey.

CPS employment reached a maximum of 158,803,000 in December 2019. 25,400,000 have been lost since then according to the household survey.

Employment: CES, CPS

US Employment History

Date	CES Employment	CES Month/Month	CPS Employment	CPS Month/Month
April 2020	131,072,000	-20,500K	133,403,000	-22,369K
March 2020	151,572,000	-870K	155,772,000	-2,987K
February 2020	152,442,000	230K	158,759,000	45K
January 2020	152,212,000	214K	158,714,000	-89K
December 2019	151,998,000	184K	158,803,000	267K
November 2019	151,814,000	261K	158,536,000	-8K
October 2019	151,553,000	185K	158,544,000	246K
September 2019	151,368,000	208K	158,298,000	403K
August 2019	151,160,000	207K	157,895,000	549K
July 2019	150,953,000	194K	157,346,000	198K
June 2019	150,759,000	182K	157,148,000	304K
May 2019	150,577,000	85K	156,844,000	148K