Dror Poleg’s Data Dashboard

Information-sector jobs vs. total employment

By Dror Poleg

This chart compares employment in the U.S. information sector with total nonfarm employment. It uses BLS payroll data via FRED and indexes both series to a common baseline; the information industry is broader than technology companies, while many technology workers sit in other industries.

Latest observation: 2026-07-01·Expected cadence: Periodic
Work
What does it show?

Information-sector employment has weakened even while total U.S. employment continued to grow.

Methodology

Monthly seasonally adjusted BLS establishment employment via FRED: Information (USINFO) and total nonfarm payrolls (PAYEMS). Each series is independently indexed to its January 2000 value = 100, putting their cumulative percentage changes on one axis. Every third observation is retained for display, plus the latest; indexed lines do not compare employment levels.

Sources