Tracy Read | January 5, 2024, 3:52 PM EST
The U.S. legal services sector continued to trend positive in the area of job growth, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.
The legal industry added 4,500 jobs last month, for a total of 1,190,500. December's job growth reflected a nearly 0.4% increase over November, the data shows.
There were 10,100 more legal industry jobs in November than during the same month last year. The employment count includes lawyers, paralegals and other legal professionals.
The number of legal jobs has been on the rise for the past four months. Kirsten Keegan Vasquez, vice president of legal recruiting firm Major Lindsey & Africa, said she believes the job growth is going to be sustainable for the near future.
"I think folks are gearing up for an increase in deal work because, knock on wood, money will become less expensive," she said. "Interest rates are coming back down. And I think people are more apt to hire now than they were because there's less constant talk that a recession is looming."
Keegan Vasquez added that she's seeing a pretty even demand for lawyers across practices.
"Litigation has not fallen off," she said. "It was hot and remains strong. So with the increase in transactional practice hiring and a little bit more hiring confidence by employers generally, I think this [job growth] is a healthy increase, and we think it'll be a pretty positive first quarter for legal hires."
Michelle Fivel, partner at Hatch Henderson Fivel LLC, said although deal flow was down this year from the highs of 2021 and early 2022, there were several practice areas and industry sectors that were quite busy in 2023.
"Litigation — including antitrust and intellectual property — was brisk and certain specialized finance practices such as structured and project finance, particularly in the energy industry, had significant activity," Fivel said. "The healthcare and life sciences industries also kept transactional and regulatory attorneys busy. We expect legal industry jobs to grow more in 2024 as economic conditions become more conducive to corporate investment."
Overall, the U.S. economy added 216,000 non-farm jobs in December, the BLS said. The unemployment rate was essentially unchanged from November at 3.7%.
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