US legal jobs bounce back after 4-month slump, says Labor Dept.

The U.S. legal services industry experienced an increase of 1,600 jobs in September, marking a turnaround from a decline that commenced in the spring, as reported by data from the U.S. Labor Department released on Friday.

According to preliminary seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the legal sector totaled 1,181,400 jobs last month. This sector had been consistently losing jobs since April, when the bureau recorded a total of 1,188,200 jobs.

Job growth in the overall U.S. market experienced an uptick in September, with the unemployment rate decreasing to 4.1%. This decline diminishes the necessity for the Federal Reserve to implement significant interest rate reductions during its final two meetings of the year. As of February, the legal sector reached its peak employment for the year, totaling 1,190,300 positions, as reported by bureau statistics. According to John Cashman, president of recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, there has been a “robust” demand for legal professionals in the U.S. from both corporations and large law firms over the past four months.

Cashman remarked on the consistent and significant hiring trend, noting its broad geographical reach and its presence across various legal practice areas. The Labor Department’s statistics encompass a diverse array of legal professionals employed by law firms, corporations, and other organizations, including paralegals and assistants, with lawyers constituting the majority, as indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the first half of 2024, U.S. law firms reported robust financial performance, with an average revenue increase of 11.4% compared to the same timeframe in the previous year, according to data from Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group.

The demand for transactional practices is experiencing an increase following nearly three years of lackluster performance, as reported by the Thomson Reuters Institute’s Law Firm Financial Index, which monitors essential financial metrics across 195 large and mid-sized law firms.