Construction employment added 4,000 jobs on net in May, according to Associated Builders and Contractors. On a year-over-year basis, the industry has expanded by 126,000 jobs—an increase of 1.5%.
The construction unemployment rate fell from 5.6% in April to 3.5% in May. The national unemployment rate for all industries was unchanged at 4.2% in May as the U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs.
Nonresidential construction added 11,300 jobs in May, with growth in all three subsectors. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 4,500 jobs; heavy and civil engineering added 3,700 jobs; and nonresidential building added 3,100 jobs.
“The nonresidential construction segment has now added jobs at over twice the pace of the broader economy during the past 12 months,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “This hiring has been aided by softness in the residential segment, which lost over 7,000 jobs in May, freeing up workers for nonresidential contractors. Even so, the industrywide unemployment rate fell to an exceptionally low 3.5% in May, indicating that the labor supply remains unusually tight.
“Despite healthy nonresidential hiring, the broader industry has added just 25,000 jobs from January to May,” Basu continued. “That marks the slowest five-month employment growth since 2020 and provides a clear indication that high interest rates, tight lending standards and policy uncertainty are weighing on industrywide momentum. Of course, contractors remain broadly optimistic in the face of those headwinds, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, with a majority of contractors expecting their staffing levels to increase over the next six months.”
