Although, as average hours tended to be lower, at least in the initial phase of the recovery, total hours worked is only now approaching its pre-pandemic trend. Reflecting in part lingering pandemic effects on both the demand and supply side, the recovery has been uneven across sectors.
Total hours worked in contact intensive jobs in the Accommodation and Food and Other Services remain below their prepandemic levels. Overall, however, weaker employment growth in a handful of sectors has been more than offset for by significantly stronger growth in a number of other sectors – notably IT (+32%), education (+17%), professional services (+13%), construction (+12), finance (+10%) and industry (+9%).