Layoffs
21,000 Legal Jobs Lost in Last Year
Posted Mar 6, 2009 8:59 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The legal industry lost 4,200 jobs in February—the biggest monthly decline since the Wall Street meltdown of last fall, according to government figures released today (PDF). Legal employment, which includes nonlawyers who work in the legal services industry, declined from 1,154,400 in January to 1,150,200 in February.
Legal services nationwide have contracted by 21,000 jobs in the last 12 months, a drop of 1.8 percent, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The loss comes as the national unemployment rate reached 8.1 percent, the highest in 26 years, according to the New York Times.
Prior coverage at ABAJournal.com:
Legal Jobs Now Stand at Same Level as March 2004
- How B of A’s GC Got Fired: Leave Now, and Leave Your BlackBerry Behind
- Schools Ranked by 'Super Lawyers' Produced
- Law Firm Price Wars Break Out as Some Try ‘Loss Leader’ Bids for Work
- Five Questions for Law Firms Abandoning Lockstep Compensation
- Judge Jails 2 Attorneys for Contempt in 4 Days
- Reed Smith Will Ask Nonequity Partners to Pony Up Possibly 15% of Pay
- Court Deputy Ordered to Apologize or Face Jail After Taking Lawyer's Paperwork
- Skadden Jumps on the Bonus Bandwagon
- ABA Executive Director Resigns
- Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in E-Mail Cost 2 Their Jobs
Should Supreme Court Justices Be Able to Review News Accounts Before Publication?
Comments
J.D.
Mar 6, 2009 10:14 AM CST
In other news, India gained 21,000 legal jobs last year!
Honestly, though, I’d like to see how many of these jobs reemerged elsewhere.
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B. McLeod
Mar 7, 2009 8:49 PM CST
Well, it seems a lot of people are looking for them, so maybe we will eventually find out where they are.
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