Thirty-six states and Washington, D.C., added construction jobs in November, and construction employment is down in 32 states since February 2020 amid labor shortages, according to www.agc.org.
“Construction activity has picked up in recent months but still has not reached the employment levels of early last year in most of the country during what has become a very tight labor market,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. “If contractors had found enough qualified workers, more states would have recovered fully by now from the pandemic-induced job losses.”
Florida added the most construction jobs from October to November—8,200—and Montana had the largest percentage increase of construction jobs for the month—2.7%. Louisiana lost the largest number of construction jobs (-2,200) and lost the highest percentage of construction jobs (-1.8%) for the month.
Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., added construction jobs from February 2020 to November. Florida added the most jobs—8,700—and South Dakota had the largest percentage increase during that period—10.5%. Texas lost the most construction jobs from February 2020 to September (-42,600 jobs), and Louisiana had the largest percentage decline (-14.5%).
