New U.S. Census Bureau statistics from Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) show the extent to which American workers changed jobs across industries during and after the end of the pandemic emergency was declared in 2023.
LEHD's job-to-job (J2J) data product now includes an experimental research publication of workflow counts across industries, from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to a more detailed subsector level (3-digit NAICS).
Analyzing the industry subsectors rather than just industry sectors captures job changes within and across industries, offering a richer picture of how often workers changed jobs during the pandemic.
For example, Food service and drinking places It is a subsector of an industry called Accommodation and Food Services.
Our statistics show that in 2021, workers in this subsector were more likely than in 2019 to move to jobs in another industrial subsector such as General merchandise retailerspart of the Retail Trade sector.
They were also less likely to transition into jobs in Administrative and support servicesa subsector of yet another industry, during that same period.
These new origin-destination statistics also show that the Administrative and Support Services subsector was an important source and Destination of the jobs of workers who change jobs.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a marked impact on the frequency of employment changes between subsectors.
