WASHINGTON (AP) — Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit employment restaurants and bars especially hard in September.
The leisure and hospitality sector lost 111,000 jobs last month. That decline appears to have come from the closures of hotels and restaurants in Florida and Texas resulting from storm damage, the Labor Department said Friday in its September jobs report.
The job losses were so substantial that it caused the number of jobs across the entire U.S. economy to shrink by 33,000 last month.
Retailers also shed jobs, with auto dealers, department stores, clothiers, electronics outlets and food and beverage stores each posting losses.
Manufacturing jobs slipped in September after a burst of hiring in August. The decline came largely from fewer jobs at auto factories, chemical plants, printers and apparel makers.
Some of the job losses were offset by strong gains in transportation and warehousing, possibly a positive sign ahead of a holiday shopping season that relies increasingly on online shoppers. The education and health sector also hired. And hiring by professional and financial services companies were up as well.
| Industry (change from previous month) | September 2017 | August 2017 | Past 12 months |
| Construction | 8,000 | 19,000 | 184,000 |
| Manufacturing | -1,000 | 41,000 | 117,000 |
| Retail | -2,900 | -7,300 | -78,400 |
| Transportation, warehousing | 21,800 | 8,000 | 83,000 |
| Information (Telecom, publishing) | -9,000 | -4,000 | -79,000 |
| Financial services | 10,000 | 8,000 | 149,000 |
| Professional services (Accounting, engineering, temp work) | 13,000 | 43,000 | 528,000 |
| Education and health | 27,000 | 45,000 | 472,000 |
| Hotels, restaurants, entertainment | -111,000 | 0 | 189,000 |
| Government | 7,000 | 5,000 | 21,000 |
| Source: Labor Department |
