The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey shows the construction industry registered 231,000 job openings in January, which is down by 14,000 for the month and down by 1,000 from January 2025, according to Associated Builders and Contractors. The survey defines a job opening as any unfilled position for which an employer is actively recruiting.
Construction workers were laid off at a faster rate than they quit; the layoff/discharge rate was 2% in January, and the quit rate was 1.7%.
“While construction hiring accelerated in January, rising to the fastest rate since the first half of 2025, that’s unfortunately not saying much,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “The industry’s hiring rate is still slower than at any point between the start of the data series in 2001 and the end of 2019. Contractors remain confident that their staffing levels will expand over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, although that confidence has remained intact for much of the past several years while hiring has remained subdued.”
