Construction Sector Employment Increases in May
Construction Job Openings Rise, But Long-Run Trend is Declining
A closer look at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turn Over (JOLTS) survey for May (released 7-6-23), with a focus on the construction sector employment 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 May, following a downward revision to April’s estimate.
According to the JOLTS report and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction jobs increased from a revised reading of 347,000 in April to 366,000 in May. This compares to a series high of 488,000 reported in December 2022. The construction sector job openings rate increased to 4.4%, up from April’s level of 4.2%.
Hiring in the construction sector was at 4.8% in May, following a rate of 4.5% in April. The post COVID-19 peak rate of hiring occurred in May 2020, which saw a 10.4% increase as a surge in home building and remodeling began.
Construction sector layoffs slowed to a rate of 1.5% in May, following 2.4% in April. The peak in layoffs was 10.8% in April 2020. Since that time, the sector’s layoff rate has been below 3%, with the exception of February 2021 due to weather related issues and March 2023 due to some market agitation.
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