Construction Labor Market Experiences Further Decline in Job Openings in October

A closer look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for October, with a specific focus on the construction sector and additional analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that the construction labor market experienced a decline in job openings as the housing market continued to slow.

The count of open construction positions fell from 423,000 in September to 371,000 in October. This reading is marginally below the estimate of a year ago (392,000), indicating that the skilled labor crisis in the US construction sector remains a persistent problem.

The construction job openings rate declined, falling to 4.6% in October from 5.2% in September. The series high of 5.5% was recorded in April 2022.

Hiring in the construction sector softened to a rate of 4.3% in October. For comparison, in May 2020, as the building and remodeling sector recovered from the start of the pandemic, the hiring rate reached 10.4%.

In October, construction sector layoffs fell back to a rate of 1.7%. For comparison, in April 2020, the layoff rate was 10.8%. Since that time, the sector’s layoff rate has remained below 3%, with the exception of February 2021 due to weather effects. The number of layoffs in construction fell back to 134,000 (compared to 138,000 in October 2021).

The number of construction quits was unchanged year-over-year at 189,000.