Construction employment lost 20,000 jobs in May, according to www.abc.org. The industry has added 888,000 jobs since May 2020, recovering 79.8% of the jobs lost since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The construction unemployment rate fell from 7.7% in April to 6.7% in May. The national unemployment rate for all industries fell from 6.1% in April to 5.8% in May as the U.S. economy added 559,000 jobs.
Nonresidential construction lost 21,800 jobs in May, driven by a loss of 16,800 jobs in the nonresidential specialty trade contractor category. Heavy and civil engineering lost 5,500 jobs on net, and nonresidential building added 500 jobs on net.
Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu said the number of unfilled job openings in construction has been increasing rapidly in recent months, and the labor force participation rate dipped in May to 61.6% as millions of Americans no longer are working or seeking employment.
“Constraints on hiring are pushing wages higher,” Basu said. “This comes on top of materials price increases experienced in recent months. Remarkably, despite inflationary pressures, the ongoing wait for a meaningful federal infrastructure package and compromised commercial real estate fundamentals, most nonresidential contractors remain positive regarding their prospects over the balance of the year. ABC’s Construction Confidence Index indicates that contractors expect sales, employment and profit margins to rise over the next six months. Backlog remains steady.
“There are several possible reasons why many Americans remain reluctant to re-engage in the labor market,” Basu continued. “Among the challenges are stepped-up unemployment insurance benefits, children still learning remotely and lingering fears of infection and/or vaccination and prior stimulus payments. A number of governors have seen fit to truncate the duration of supplemental federal unemployment insurance benefits. At least theoretically, this should result in more significant labor force participation going forward. But it is conceivable that the pace of job gains will remain somewhat disappointing over the summer from a national perspective since governors in many populous states have not moved in that direction.”
