Construction Labor Market Heats Up in April

A closer look at Wednesday’s (5-31-23) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for April, with a focus on the construction industry and additional analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that the construction labor market experienced an increase in job openings in April.

The count of open construction jobs rose from a revised reading of 315,000, or a rate of 3.8%, in March to 383,000, or a rate of 4.6%, in April. The NAHB points out that these data come after a series high of 488,000 construction job openings recorded in December 2022. The overall trend, according to the NAHB, is one of cooling for open construction sector jobs as the housing market slows and backlog is reduced, with a notable uptick in month-to-month volatility since late last year.

Hiring in the construction sector slowed to 4.5% in April, following a 4.9% reading in March. The post-COVID-19 peak rate of hiring occurred in May 2020 (10.4%), as a rebound in home building and remodeling took place.

Construction sector layoffs slowed to a 2% rate in April after experiencing an elevated rate of 3% in March. In April 2020, the layoff rate was 10.8%. However, since that time, the sector layoff rate has been below 3% (with the exception of February 2021 due to weather effects).