2022 Started With an Increasing Number of Job Openings in the Construction Sector

An in-depth look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) January 2022 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), with a focus on construction labor and additional analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders, reveals that the construction labor market started the year with a rising number of job openings.

The number of unfilled construction job positions increased 4.8% in January to 380,000—well above the 299,000 total recorded a year ago. The highest measure in the history of the data series (going back to late 2000) was 416,000 in April 2019. The housing market remains underbuilt and requires additional labor, lots, lumber, and building materials to add inventory.

Construction sector hiring rate increased in January by 4%, continuing its steady upward trek. The post-virus peak rate of hiring occurred in May 2020 (10.4%) as a rebound took hold in home building and remodeling.

Construction sector layoffs remained low at a 2% rate in January. In April 2020, the layoff rate was 10.8%. Since that time however, the sector layoff rate has been below 3%, with the exception of February 2021 due to weather effects. The rate trended lower in 2021 due to the skilled labor shortage.

While the number of job quits for the overall economy continues to be elevated as the Great Resignation continues, with more than 4.2 million workers quit their jobs in January. This marked eight consecutive months of a quits count of more than 4 million for the month. However, the number of quits in construction in January (146,000) declined modestly, although this is off a data series high in November (215,000).