On Friday the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its jobs numbers for October. Though the overall outlook was fairly rosy with reported job gains in the U.S. and a slight decrease in the national unemployment rate. But that isn’t what happened in the legal sector. Legal jobs were down 1,100 for the month.
Now if you’re in law school or on the hunt for a job as an attorney, how much should you freak out? Well, as the BLS defines the legal services sector it includes paralegals, legal secretaries and other members of a law firm’s staff. As Law.com points out, there’s been a spate of Biglaw staff reductions recently that are likely driving the numbers:
October’s employment figures follow reports of staff reductions at large law firms over the past few months. Those reports include a cut of 17 administrative staff confirmed in July by Stoel Rives, a Portland, Oregon-based Am Law 200 firm that said at the time it was embarking on a strategic revamp of its operations.
Hogan Lovells, which was also reducing jobs in the U.K., recently offered voluntary retirement packages to about 400 business staff in the United States. The firm later confirmed that as much as 12 percent of its staff accepted those packages, meaning about 45 employees were impacted, according to the National Law Journal. In September, reports emerged that Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy was offering buyout packages to legal secretaries ahead of the firm’s plan to move its New York office to Hudson Yards, a real estate development on Manhattan’s west side.
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BLS also made a downward adjustment to its legal services job numbers for September and August.
Law firms are increasingly looking for ways to reduce overhead and streamline their services. Buyouts and layoffs for legal staff have long been a part of that trend, and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon.
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).