The U.S. legal sector lost 1,500 jobs in August—the second consecutive month of contraction, as the country’s overall economy continued a nearly 8-year streak of monthly job growth, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

In its monthly look at the U.S. employment situation across a host of sectors, the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in August, an estimated 1,135,300 people worked in legal services—a category that includes lawyers, paralegals, legal secretaries and other law-related professions. The BLS data is seasonally adjusted, but also provisional and subject to revision.