Goldman Sachs In his report, economist David Mericle noted that employment growth in the U.S. construction sector is likely to slow down following a sharp increase in November. In addition, he forecast a decline of 5,000 jobs in the public sector, with federal government employment expected to drop by 5,000 while state and local government employment remains flat.The unemployment rate is expected to edge down slightly from 4.6% in November to 4.5%, primarily because the November data reflected the impact of federal government employees placed on furlough during the government shutdown.