Construction employment added 11,000 jobs on net in September, according to Associated Builders and Contractors. On a year-over-year basis, the industry has expanded by 109,000 jobs—an increase of 1.3%.
The construction unemployment rate rose from 3.1% in August to 3.5% in September. The national unemployment rate for all industries rose to 4.2% as the U.S. economy added 29,000 jobs.
Nonresidential construction added 16,100 jobs in September, with gains in all three subsectors. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 12,300 jobs; heavy and civil engineering added 2,600 jobs; and nonresidential building added 1,200 jobs.
“The construction industry added jobs for the seventh straight month in September,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Industry employment growth is increasingly concentrated on the nonresidential side as the data center boom continues to support rapid hiring of certain specialty trade contractors.
“At the same time, the residential segment continues to hemorrhage workers, and that side of the industry has now shed 1% of its employment base over the past year,” Basu continued. “Contractor hiring expectations remain elevated, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, an outlook that seems justified given the insatiable demand for new data centers.”
