Employment rises across telecom segment, along with longer hours, higher pay

Employment across the telecommunications segment increased in July, reversing a significant uptick in unemployment the previous month, according to the latest workforce figures from the United States Department of Labor.
According to the agency’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the telecommunications sector posted a 3.2% unemployment rate in July, down from the 3.6% rate seen in June. While a month-over-month improvement, the July number was still a full percentage point higher than the 2.2% unemployment posted in May.
The BLS numbers also showed that nearly 861,000 people were employed across the telecommunications sector in July, the highest number seen since mid-2012. Of the total number of workers across the space at the end of 2013, “telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers” posted the largest number with nearly 147,000 workers. There were a reported 97,420 “customer service representatives” employed in July, along with nearly 69,000 “line installers and repairers” and nearly 24,000 “electronics engineers, except computer” according to the latest statistics.
The agency’s latest numbers on earnings, which date back to June, showed a 44 cent month-over-month increase in average hourly wages to $31.55, with the average work week also increasing from 38.4 hours to 39.2 hours. Among “non-supervisory” employees, the average wage in June increased 27 cents to $25.84, with the average work week lengthening from 39 hours in May to 39.6 hours in June.
Looking ahead, August has been an active month on the job front, with Ixia announcing plans to cut up to 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan, with Cisco Systems saying it planned to cut up to 6,000 jobs in legacy operations to make room for new hires in its software, security, cloud and data center business lines.
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