Construction employment lost jobs in October

Construction employment lost 3,000 jobs on net in October, according to Associated Builders and Contractors. On a year-over-year basis, the industry has expanded by 124,000 jobs—an increase of 1.5%.

The construction unemployment rate rose from 3.5% in September to 3.6% in October. The national unemployment rate for all industries fell to 4.1% as the U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs.

Nonresidential construction added 13,300 jobs in October, with gains in all three subsectors. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 7,900 jobs; nonresidential building added 2,900 jobs; and heavy and civil engineering added 2,500 jobs.

“The construction industry lost jobs for the first time since February,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “As has been the case, however, job losses continued to be entirely concentrated on the residential side of the industry. Nonresidential construction employment, buoyed by the ongoing data center boom, expanded yet again and has grown more than twice as fast as economywide employment over the past year.

“Nonresidential payrolls should continue to expand in the coming months; nearly 50% of contractors expect to increase their staffing levels over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, while fewer than 12% expect to cut workers,” Basu continued.

Basu said the report signals continued workforce shortage issues.

“The October jobs report provided yet more evidence of reemerging construction worker shortages,” Basu said. “The industry’s unemployment rate of 3.6% matches 2018 as the lowest October level since the turn of the century, and this labor market tightness is causing rapid wage escalation. Average hourly earnings for construction employees grew at the fastest monthly pace in over three years in October and are now up 4.7% year over year, significantly more than the 3.1% average wage growth across all industries.”