The telecom workforce grew by 2,300 jobs in November 2014, according to a new U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics report, and is up some 20,500 jobs since the beginning of the year.
The BLS released its most recent Current Employment Statistics Highlights on Dec. 5. The monthly report, considered preliminary, tracks employment fluctuations by industry.
For BLS purposes, the telecommunications field, a subset of the information industry, is comprised of employees of wired and wireless telecom carriers, telecommunications resellers, satellite telcos, cable and other program distributors and other relevant jobs.
Based on the new data, 871,800 people work in telecom. That figure is up by 2,300 from 869,500 in October 2014 and up by 15,800 from 856,000 in November 2013.
For historical context, there was a 10-year high of 1,090,400 telecom employees in December 2004. Following that peak, the number of employees steadily decreased, with few exceptions, to a 10-year low of 848,100 in December 2012.
The information industry – including telecom, data processing, broadcasting, traditional publishing and motion picture and sound recording – contributed 4,000 jobs in November, according to BLS statistics.
A total of 321,000 jobs were added nationally in November 2014.
