ANALYSIS: Legal Employment Continued to Tumble From Q4 to Q1

The US legal workforce contracted for a second consecutive quarter in Q1, starting off the year with falling employment totals and climbing unemployment rates—reflecting a cooling field in an otherwise hot job market.

Overall legal employment fell from 1.88 million in Q4 2023 to 1.76 million in Q1 2024, the lowest level since Q1 2017 (1.73 million). Additionally, average employment levels fell by 12% for men (from 913,000 to 805,000) and 1% for women (from 966,000 to 955,000).

Employment levels fell from the fourth to first quarter for lawyers (from 1.21 million to 1.11 million), legal support workers (from 61,000 to 55,000), and title examiners (from 95,000 to 77,000). But the gloomy report did have one bright spot: Paralegal employment climbed from 409,000 to 438,000 in Q1 after two negative quarters.

The reversal of pandemic-era over-hiring, lower demand in corporate legal practices, and continued high interest rates (which can particularly impact title examiners) are among the economic issues that likely led to the negative employment figures in the first quarter.

As employment totals across most of the field dipped in the first quarter, quarterly unemployment levels climbed. Unemployment rates for lawyers and paralegals rose from 0.9% to 1% and 2.5% to 3.4%, respectively, while the rate more than doubled for men (from 0.4% to 1.1%) and nearly doubled for women (from 1.8% to 3%). All rates for legal workers were still lower than the national unemployment rate of 3.8% in the first quarter.

The increases in unemployment rates and decreases in employment levels for most of the legal field mean that many who are losing their legal jobs are looking for new ones rather than leaving the legal industry altogether.

The continued negative news for legal employment and unemployment means that legal workers will likely experience a tougher job market, while employers may be able to benefit from a relatively larger surplus of workers.

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