September 14, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Security guard employment after 2001

Employment in the security guards and patrol services industry spiked after the attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City and Arlington, Virginia.

[Chart data—TXT]

Looking at national employment in the security guards and patrol services industry, the spike between 2001 and 2002 is clearly visible. Employment then dropped in 2003, rather than sustaining the higher levels for a longer period of time.

The growth in security employment from 2001 to 2002 was diffused across many counties and not confined to the metropolitan areas that had been the targets. Levels of security industry employment subsequently subsided and are now roughly in line with what they might have been given the industry’s secular uptrend in jobs.

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program produced these data. Employment data presented here are for all private-sector workers covered by State and Federal unemployment insurance programs. Find out more in "Security Guard Employment Before and After 2001," (PDF) Issues in Labor Statistics, BLS Summary 07-08.