Legal Job Opportunities Decline – Again

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Summary: Although the legal services sector had seen an increase in jobs in August, the number of jobs sharply declined in September.

Over four thousand legal services sector jobs disappeared in the United States in the past month, according to the Wall Street Journal. In September, 4,600 jobs were lost from the legal services sector, which marks the biggest drop in a one-month period in the past five years.

  

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The total number of legal services sector jobs is currently 1,133,800. This number varies seasonally depending on the U.S. Department of Labor’s monthly reports.

The legal field had made a bit of a comeback in August, but the increase in jobs reported that month was canceled out by the substantial decline that September brought. Since the beginning of the year, the legal field job market has declined by 2,900 jobs, which is the lowest amount of jobs since July 2013. The number of jobs available is roughly 46,000 below the pre-recession levels of 2007.

Although employment has increased overall in the United States, the legal services sector has had a much more difficult time recovering from the recession. Other areas have seen significant increases in job numbers. For example, non-farm payrolls increased by 248,000 (seasonally adjusted) last month, which was the fastest increase pace since June.

The legal services sector is not strictly made of attorneys. Paralegals, notaries, patent agents, legal consultants, process services, and others also make up this group of employees.

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