Growth is often a positive thing, although sometimes that growth is so miniscule that it’s hardly noticeable. Such may be said about the number of jobs gained in the legal sector last month.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ preliminary employment report, which was released last Friday, the legal sector added a staggering 100 jobs in November. While better than losing 100 jobs, the figure is a 300 job decrease from the 400 jobs added in October, according to the BLS’ seasonally adjusted numbers.
The slight bump in jobs seems to correlate with the national unemployment rate dropping to 8.6 percent last month, which is 0.4 percent lower than October, and the best overall rate since March 2009.
Perhaps these modest gains were prefaced in October, when HBR Consulting released the results of its 2011 HBR Law Department Survey, which indicated that companies are increasing internal legal spend and reducing their reliance on outside law firms, which could mean more in-house jobs.
